Sir Martyn Poliakoff, CBE, FRS, FREng, FRSC, FIChemE^[3] (born 16 December 1947)^[1] is a British chemist, working on fundamental chemistry, and on developing environmentally acceptable processes and materials. The core themes of his work are supercritical fluids,^[6][7] infrared spectroscopy and lasers. He is a research professor in chemistry at the University of Nottingham.^[4] As well as carrying out research at the University of Nottingham, he is a lecturer, teaching a number of modules including green chemistry.^{[8][9][10][11]}

He is the main presenter for the YouTube channel Periodic Videos.^[12]

Poliakoff was born to a British-Jewish mother, Ina (née Montagu), and Russian-Jewish father, Alexander Poliakoff (Russian: Поляко́в). He has a younger brother, the screenwriter and director Stephen Poliakoff. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Poliakoff, was a prolific inventor of electrical devices who experienced the communist revolution in Russia first-hand, and emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1924.^[13]

Poliakoff was educated at Westminster School^[1] followed by King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA degree in 1969, and a PhD in 1973,^[14] for research supervised by J.J. Turner.^[4][15] While an undergraduate at Cambridge, Poliakoff met and became close friends with Tony Judt, who later became a historian and writer.^[16][17]

In 1972, Poliakoff moved to Newcastle University and in 1979 was appointed a lecturer at the University of Nottingham,^[4] where he was subsequently promoted to professor in 1991.^[1] His research has been funded by the EPSRC.^[18]

Poliakoff is a global leader in the field of green chemistry with a specific interest in the applications of supercritical fluids. These highly compressed gases possess properties of gases and liquids that permit interesting chemical reactions without the need for organic solvents, which endanger both health and the environment.^[3] His contributions have enabled the development of supercritical carbon dioxide and water solvent systems to replace traditional organic solvents at the industrial scale. As foreign secretary and vice-president of the Royal Society from 2011 to 2016, he worked to represent and further the impact of UK science around the world.^[3]

Poliakoff has a daughter, Ellen Poliakoff, a psychology lecturer at the University of Manchester;^[44] and a son, Simon Poliakoff, a physics teacher at The Priory School Hitchin. Martyn Poliakoff produced a web eulogy of close friend Tony Judt in 2010.^[45]

On Poliakoff's birthday in 2011, his students brought him periodic table cupcakes.^[46] Periodic table cupcakes have been used for science and chemistry education since they were first created by Ida Freund.^[47]