Silvia S. Martins MD, PhD

Dr. Silvia S. Martins is the Director of the Substance Abuse Epidemiology Unit of the Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is also the co-director of the NIDA T32 Substance Abuse Epidemiology Training Program in the department and the Course Director of Principles of Epidemiology (P6400). She is also the Department of Epidemiology Co-Investigator of the IMSD program at Columbia.

She has co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed epidemiological and substance abuse journal articles served as PI or MPI of multiple NIH funded grants. Notable recent findings have focused on recent trends in marijuana use, the relationship of perceived availability of marijuana with medical marijuana laws, traffic fatalities and medical marijuana laws, and increasing trends in heroin use and heroin use disorder in the general U.S. adult population.

She has received several awards for her research and mentoring, including, in 2011, the Award for pioneering efforts in gambling research, in 2013, the Columbia President's Global Innovation Fund, and more recently, in 2017, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Her current research focuses on the consequences of medical marijuana laws in the U.S, recreational marijuana laws in Uruguay, prescription drug monitoring programs, social media and marijuana, and gambling and impulsive behaviors among minority adolescents in the U.S. She has been continuously funded by NIH since 2006 as a Principal Investigator.