Martin T. Schechter is Professor and formerly, the Founding Director of the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Schechter completed his BA in Mathematics at York University, his MA in Mathematics at UBC, his PhD in Mathematics at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, his MD in Medicine at McMaster University and his MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Schechter was a National Health Research Scholar and Scientist from 1986 to 1999 and then a CIHR Senior Investigator from 2000 to 2001. From 2001 to 2023, he held a tier I Canada Research Chair in HIV/AIDS and Urban Population Health.

Dr. Schechter combines interests in clinical epidemiology and health services research with HIV/AIDS and addiction research. He was both a founder and National Director (1992 - 2014) of the Canadian HIV Trials Network, a national network launched in 1990 of investigators and research facilities aimed at conducting trials of HIV therapies and vaccines. In 1992, Dr. Schechter helped to found the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and was its founding Director of Epidemiology and Population Health. He also served as founding Director of the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences. Dr. Schechter was founding President of the Canadian Association for HIV Research, and co-chaired the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver in 1996. He served both as Presiden-Elect (2005-07) and President (2007-09) of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. 

Dr. Schechter is the author of more than 410 peer-reviewed publications and 700 abstracts and scholarly presentations. In 1994, he was invested into the Order of British Columbia for his contributions to research. Dr. Schechter also received the Science Council of British Columbia Gold Medal in 2002, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004. For his contributions, Dr. Schechter was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2022.