Born in 1956, Martin Rhodes holds a D. Phil. from the University of Oxford (1985) and an M.A. in political science and sociology (1st Class) from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Before arriving at GSIS in January 2006, he worked for more than ten years at the European University Institute (EUI), in Florence, Italy, first as a research professor in the EUI's Robert Schuman public policy centre, and then for seven years as full professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences. Before arriving in Florence, he was a Senior Lecturer in Government at the University of Manchester, England.

His research focuses on various areas of comparative political economy and European public policy, including EU social and labour market policy and comparative industrial, employment and welfare policies among EU member states, as well as Italian politics.

In addition to his academic employment, he has acted as a consultant on the world steel market and the Italian economy for the Economist Intelligence Unit (1987 to 1993) and Oxford Analytica (1988 to 2000), and has published numerous op-ed columns in the Financial Times . He was founding co-editor of the journal South European Society and Politics , published by Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London, from 1995-1999, and is co-editor of EPS (European Political Science), the journal of the European political science profession.