Professor Martinac is one of the leading membrane biophysicist world-wide with an outstanding international and national reputation. He has been internationally known for his pioneering studies of ion channels in microbes, particularly the discovery, cloning and structural and functional characterization of mechanosensitive ion channels in bacteria. His discovery of bacterial mechanosensitive channels and elucidation of the basic physical principles of mechanosensitive channel gating by bilayer deformation forces has made major impact in the fields of mechanosensory transduction and ion channels. His recent work expanded into studies of the role mechanosensitive ion channels may play in neuronal and cardiac diseases.