Stephen Martin, PhD
Engineer
CDC’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
CAPT Stephen B. Martin, Jr. (Steve) is a Senior Research Engineer Officer in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service assigned to the Field Studies Branch of the Respiratory Health Division at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia. Since joining NIOSH in 1997, he has been involved with research into respirator filter and unit performance, ventilation systems and other engineering controls, environmental tractor cab filter performance and cab integrity testing, indoor air quality investigations, and air/surface disinfection studies using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI). He works extensively on tuberculosis (TB) outbreak investigations and prevention studies in jails, prisons, and homeless shelters. Steve is one of two NIOSH engineers responsible for the bulk of the CDC ventilation guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, he was involved with the NIOSH response to the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreaks in Asia, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and preparing US hospitals to receive Ebola patients during the recent outbreaks in western Africa. Steve is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of West Virginia. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia and earned a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Architectural Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, where he developed a microbiologically-based rating system for in-duct UVGI devices. Steve is a founding member and past-chairperson of the ASHRAE Technical Committee on Ultraviolet Air and Surface Disinfection (TC 2.9) and a voting member of the ASHRAE Standards Project Committee (SPC 185) that developed standard testing methods for in-duct UVGI air and surface disinfection devices. He is an invited member on the Facility Guidelines Institute’s (FGI) Health Guidelines Revision Committee responsible for updating the “Guidelines for Design and Construction of Healthcare Facilities,” which over 40 states use or reference as code for the construction and renovation of healthcare facilities. He also serves as a NIOSH representative on the Federal TB Task Force and as the NIOSH ex officio member of the CDC Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis.