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Carolyn Arthur “Biddy” Martin is the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She assumed office on September 1, 2008, succeeding John D. Wiley. Prior to becoming chancellor, she was Provost of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from July 1, 2000 until August 31, 2008. She is the ninth graduate of UW—Madison to serve as its chancellor, and the first alumna to hold that position. She is the university's second female chancellor, after Donna Shalala, and also the university's first openly gay chancellor.

At Cornell, Martin was the university president's first deputy officer, reporting to the president as the chief educational officer and chief operating officer of the university and responsible for oversight of all academic programs within the university, with the exception of those programs reporting to the provost for medical affairs in New York City. Her accomplishments included the creation of a $4 billion capital campaign, the reorganization of the Division of Biological Sciences, the enhancement of faculty salaries, and the establishment of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, an interdisciplinary research institute on Cornell's Ithaca campus. She also developed a new financial aid policy that would eliminate loans for all students whose families earn less than $75,000 a year, as well as a community Common Read project as part of orientation for incoming freshmen.

Martin received her Ph.D. in German Literature in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and joined the faculty at Cornell the same year. In 1991, she was promoted to associate professor in the Department of German Studies with a joint appointment in the Women’s Studies Program. She served as chair of the Department of German Studies from 1994—97, and in 1997 was promoted to full Professor. In 1996, she was appointed Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

A distinguished scholar of German Studies, Martin is the author of numerous articles and two books...one on a literary and cultural figure in the Freud circle, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and the other on gender theory. A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, she received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a masters degree from Middlebury College.

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