Martin Grötschel served as President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) from October 2015 to September 2020.

He was full professor of mathematics at the University of Augsburg (1982-1991) and for information technology at the Institute of Mathematics of Technische Universität Berlin from 1991 to 2015. He served as the Vice President of Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin (ZIB) from 1991 to 2012 and as President of ZIB from 2012 to 2015. From 2002 to 2008 he chaired the DFG Research Center MATHEON "Mathematics for key technologies". Furthermore, he held many other administrative positions in the service of the sciences. 

His mathematical research interests include optimization, discrete mathematics, and operations research. He has authored and edited 15 books and written more than 150 papers. He has deep interest in applications of mathematics and was engaged in many projects with industry in areas such as telecommunication, electronics, software, logistics, traffic, transportation, energy, and production technology. Martin Grötschel has also been involved in various projects on scientific information and communication as well as open access, open science, mathematical and IT-aspects of digital humanities.

During his tenure as professor at the University of Augsburg (1982-1991) and at TU Berlin (since 1991) Martin Grötschel has supervised almost 200 diploma, master or bachelor theses and almost 50 PhD theses.

His awards include Honorary Doctoral Degrees of the University of Karlsruhe, the University of Magdeburg, the University of Augsburg and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology. Martin Grötschel is, apart from the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW), member of six scientific academies: Leopoldina, acatech, the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Academia Europaea (the Academy of Europe) and fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the development of science in the developing countries. 

He received the Dantzig Prize and the John von Neumann Theory Prize for his contributions to mathematical programming, the Leibniz Prize for fundamental research and the Beckurts Prize for transfer of research to industry. In 2011 he was honored by the Technische Universität München with the title "TUM Distinguished Affiliated Professor". Among further honors he received the Golden Badge of Honor of TU Berlin and Scientific Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin . In 2014 he received the Life Time Award der Stiftung heureka für Umwelt & Mobilität (HEUREKA 2014).

Martin Grötschel was the President of the German Mathematical Society (DMV) from 1993-1994, he was the President of the Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians 1998 in Berlin, and from 2007-2014 he was the Secretary of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). From 2011 to 2020 Martin Grötschel was a member of the Executive Board of the Einstein Foundation Berlin and until 2015 he served as its Chair.