Martin Novak is an isotope biogeochemist. He uses tradtional and non-traditional isotopes in environmental studies. He studies linkages between carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycling in the soils of forest-decline areas, and the dispersion of lead and arsenic in ecosystems. He looks into the effect of climate warming on carbon storage in wetlands. His research interests include the use of vertical peat profiles and tree rings as archives of past changes in pollution. He uses natural-abundance, man-made, and cosmogenic isotopes in his studies.

Martin is the Head of the Department of Environmental Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry of the Czech Geological Survey in Prague. He serves as an Associate Editor of two journals, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and Applied Geochemistry. He has served as the Head of the Working Group on Applied Isotope Geochemistry of the International Association of Geochemistry (IAGC), a Councillor of IAGC, and as the President of the Association of European Geological Societies. He graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic,Villanova University in the US, and has been a Royal Society Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK.