Dr. Jay Martin is a Distinguished Professor of Ecological Engineering in the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering at Ohio State University. He is the Lead Faculty for the Healthy Air, Land, and Water research program of the OSU Sustainability Institute, where he mentors faculty and supports research of ecosystems and society to increase sustainability. Dr. Martin is a Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America and a Professional Engineer in Ohio, and has served as President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer of the American Ecological Engineering Society, and has twice hosted the AEES conference.

​

A wetlands ecology course during an undergraduate Civil Engineering degree from Purdue University inspired Dr. Martin’s interest in ecology and wetlands. To pursue this interest, he completed a MS from the University of Florida, where his thesis was a model the wetland nitrogen cycle. For his PhD from Louisiana State University, he developed models to reverse land loss in the Mississippi River Delta. His current interdisciplinary research at Ohio State links field studies, watershed models, and socio-economic analyses with advisory groups to improve downstream water quality with management practices in upstream watersheds. This includes forming public-private partnerships to locate management practices, such as wetlands, where they will have the greatest impact to accelerate water quality gains in the Great Lakes. His research has ranged from Mexico to Costa Rica, to Colombia and included anaerobic digesters, Mayan agroecosystems, wetland restoration in the Andes, green infrastructure for stormwater management, emergy analysis, and living machines. Dr. Martin has advised 14 PHD students, 25 master’s students, 4 post-doctoral scientists, and authored 88 journal articles. Grants he has led total $39M from NSF, USDA, NOAA, and state and private sources. He has received teaching, advising, and research awards from the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering at OSU, and in 2021 was recognized as Distinguished Professor of Ecological Engineering in the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. He received the 2000 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University.​