Joel W. Martin

Dr. Joel W. (Jody) Martin joined the Natural History Museum in 1988. A native of Kentucky, he received his degrees in biology from the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Florida State University. Dr. Martin is also an adjunct professor at both USC and UCLA, where he occasionally teaches and oversees graduate student research.

His research interests include the morphology (form, function, and adaptation), natural history, and evolutionary relationships of crabs, lobsters, shrimps, and their many relatives in habitats all over the world. He has published more than 100 scientific articles and books and is well known nationally and internationally as an expert on the Crustacea. His field work has taken him from shallow, ephemeral freshwater ponds and pools in the Mojave Desert and the southeastern United States to coral reefs in the eastern Pacific, central Pacific, and in the Caribbean, where he has led expeditions to document marine biodiversity as it relates to coral reefs and nearby habitats. His work also includes studies on the animals inhabiting deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, and he is a world authority on the identification and biology of crustaceans at these bizarre and remote habitats.

A recipient of more than 20 grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, a frequent public speaker on global biodiversity and on the history of science, faith, and society, Dr. Martin is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.