David Forbes Martyn

David Forbes Martyn FAA FRS (27 June 1906 – 5 March 1970) was a Scottish-born Australian physicist and radiographer.

Education Martyn was educated at Plymouth College and Allan Glen's School, a school in Glasgow noted for its commitment to the teaching of science. and received the T. K. Sidey Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand in the same year, an award set up for outstanding scientific research. He was elected FRS of London in 1950.

His tours, lectures, diplomacy and encouragement were strongly influential in establishing an effectively communicating Australian scientific community. His main interests were radiographic studies of the upper atmosphere and the sun, though his main contributions were theoretical. In 1959, Martyn delivered the first four of the annual series of ABC lectures (subsequently named the Boyer Lectures) on "Society in the Space Age".

Personal Martyn was born in Cambuslang, Scotland, the son of Harry Somerville Martyn, ophthalmic surgeon and Elizabeth Craig Allan, née Thom. He was a keen trout fisherman, which partly explains his growing interests in environmental matters. He married Margot Adams, from Sydney in 1944. They had no children. He died in Camden, New South Wales on 5 March 1970.