Martin Arthur is Emeritus Newton R. & Sarah L. G. Wilson and Senior Professor, Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his Bachelor of Arts, B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University. His Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering was awarded by the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
After completing his doctorate, he joined Washington University as a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer to study peripheral auditory mechanisms in the cochlear nerve. He helped show that two-tone interactions to sharpen location of vibrations on the cochlea was a non-linear property of neural encoding and not neural inhibition as seen in image sharpening in the retina. His primary research areas have been in medical ultrasonic imaging and inverse electrocardiography. He has supervised 50 masters and doctoral theses. His work in medical ultrasonic imaging seeks to map variations in ultrasonic properties that differentiate normal from pathological tissue. This work includes 1) development of methods for real-time synthetic-focus imaging with the complete dataset using novel architectures and algorithms for image generation and 2) pioneering ultrasonic thermometry methods based on changes in ultrasonic backscattered energy with temperature. These methods were originally applied to monitoring hyperthermia treatment for cancers but have recently been extended to include monitoring ablation of tumors and unwanted neural pathways. His analyses of signal-averaged electrocardiograms and body-surface maps are aimed at identifying underlying conditions which predispose infarct patients to develop life-threatening arrhythmias. This work includes spectral analysis of vector leads and the use of forward and inverse solutions in individualized torso models.
His activities as a professional engineer include helping to write the National Electric Code for patient care areas of healthcare facilities and work as an expert witness in electrical injury cases. He cofounded Aspen Signal Engineering with Donald Snyder and Russell Pfeiffer to develop short courses on hospital electrical systems and to consult on a range of signal-processing projects, including murder cases. He co-developed Ultrasonics in HealthCare with David Richard to create new ultrasonic imaging systems. Most recently, along with Scott Marrus and Jason Trobaugh, he cofounded ATM Cardiac Diagnostics with a license from Washington University. Our Non-Invasive Electrocardiograph Evaluation methods determine the presence of ischemia not seen in the standard lead system. Our objective is to identify ischemia in patients with chest pain more rapidly than possible with biomarkers such as troponin assays.