The State of the Center Today

In 2013, the Martinos Center welcomed its first-ever executive director, Bill Shaw, who had previously served with Partners Healthcare as associate director of research, ventures and licensing. Over the next seven years, Shaw would oversee considerable growth and expansion in the Center, not least on the operations side of the equation.

Today, the Center’s infrastructure is as robust as it’s ever been, and the sense of identity and community among its faculty and staff could not be stronger.

In 2020, the Martinos Center is home to nearly 150 faculty members and several hundred more postdoctoral fellows, students and staff. With more than 200 grants submitted every year, Center investigators are working with over $60 million in funding. In the past year alone, they have reported the findings from their research in more than 500 peer-reviewed papers.

The Martinos footprint also continues to grow—to over 75,000 square feet today. The additional space in part accommodates a host of new, cutting-edge imaging systems. Not least of these: a Siemens Magnetom Terra 7T MRI scanner, a next-generation MEG device with optically pumped magnetometers and a prototype magnetic particle imaging (MPI) scanner currently under construction.

The Center has seen increasing collaboration in recent years, with academic labs, medical device and pharmaceutical companies and other organizations both in the US and abroad. At the same time, it has sought to foster a greater sense of camaraderie within its own walls. In addition to the new logo and brand system, which contribute to a shared identity among Martinos researchers and staff (see opposite page), the Center has organized a growing number of events to reinforce a sense of community: among them, the popular “Art in mARTinos” gallery event, several “Martinos Day” open houses, faculty retreats and more.

But of all the ways one might measure success, the Center is most proud of the people it continues to attract and retain. As we have seen throughout this book, Martinos researchers and staff are among the most talented, most productive and most fascinating people you will find anywhere.

In the photo at the top of the page: Executive Director Bill Shaw