Martynas Yčas (December 10, 1917 – April 22, 2014) was an American microbiologist of Lithuanian descent.
[2] In 1941, Yčas went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where as a U.S. Army recruit he assisted at the Russian language school.
[2] Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York hired him in 1956 and he taught microbiology there until 1988.
[2] He was a founding member of the RNA Tie Club, a discussion society of scientists who attempted to decipher the genetic code[3] and with Gamow and others published early statistical analyses of proteins and DNA which disproved some early models of the genetic code.
He later developed an interest in ancient Greek, hieroglyphics, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Sanskrit.