Jennifer B.H. Martiny
•Full Professor, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
•Co-Director, UCI Center for Microbiome Science
Biography
Jennifer B.H. Martiny, Ph.D., is Full Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, where she also serves as Co-Director and Founding Director of the UCI Center for Microbiome Science. She is Founder and Lead of the US Microbiome Centers Consortium and serves on the Board on the Program Advisory Committee of the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Program of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Martiny's research focuses on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities, particularly how bacteria respond and adapt to environmental changes across diverse ecosystems including soils, marine environments, and the human gut.
Martiny is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Ecological Society of America. She received the Winogradsky Award from the International Society for Microbial Ecology in 2024. Her work has been supported by federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, as well as the Hypothesis Fund and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Martiny received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, where she worked with advisors Paul Ehrlich and Gretchen Daily. She held faculty positions at Brown University before joining UC Irvine in 2006. She has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles and has trained 15 Ph.D. students and 11 postdoctoral researchers, many of whom have gone on to faculty positions at universities in the United States and internationally.
Return to topEducation
- B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, University of California, San Diego, 1995
- Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1999
Distinctions
- Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2020
- Elected Member, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2025
- Winogradsky Award, International Society for Microbial Ecology, 2024
- Elected Fellow, Ecological Society of America, 2017
- NAS Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, 2011
- NSF CAREER Awardee, 2004
- VELUX Visiting Professor to Copenhagen University, 2012
- Elected Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology, 2017
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Junior Investigator Awardee, 2005
- Career Enhancement Fellow, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 2003
Areas of Expertise
- Microbial Ecology and Evolution
- Bacterial Biogeography Patterns
- Cyanophage-Host Coevolution
- Microbial Community Assembly
- Climate Change Microbial Responses
- Soil Microbiome Trait Frameworks
- Gut Microbiome Fiber Interventions
Recent Publications
- Simpson, AMR, Chase, AB, Rodríguez-Verdugo, A, Martiny, JBH, “Investigating bacterial evolution in nature with metagenomics” (opens in new tab), Current Opinion in Microbiology, vol. 87, 2025.
- Vivanco, L, Martiny, JBH, “Rethinking assumptions about plant litter decomposition” (opens in new tab), BioScience, vol. 75, pp. biaf036, 2025.
- Walters K.E., Barbour K.M., Powers J.M., Martiny J.B.H., “Microbial dispersal into surface soil is limited on a meter scale” (opens in new tab), Isme Journal, vol. 19, 2025.
- Couradeau E., Martiny J.B.H., Fontaine F., Brechot C., Bonneville M., Callens K., “Incorporating microbiomes into the One Health Joint Plan of Action” (opens in new tab), Mbio, vol. 16, 2025.
- Malik, AA, Martiny, JBH, Ribeiro, A, Sheridan, PO, Weihe, C, Brodie, EL, Allison, SD, “Bacterial population-level trade-offs between drought tolerance and resource acquisition traits impact decomposition” (opens in new tab), The ISME Journal, vol. 18, pp. wrae224, 2024.
- Rodriguez, CI, Isobe, K, Martiny, JBH, “Short-term dietary fiber interventions produce consistent gut microbiome responses across studies” (opens in new tab), mSystems, vol. 9, pp. e00133-24, 2024.
- Barbour, KM, Martiny, JBH, “Investigating eco-evolutionary processes of microbial community assembly in the wild using a model leaf litter system” (opens in new tab), The ISME Journal, vol. 18, pp. wrae043, 2024.
- Finks, SS, Moudgalya, P, Weihe, C, Martiny, JBH, “The contribution of plasmids to trait diversity in a soil bacterium” (opens in new tab), ISME Communications, vol. 4, pp. ycae025, 2024.
- G. Piton, SD Allison, M Bahram, F Hildebrand, JBH Martiny, KK Treseder, AC Martiny, “Reply to: Microbial dark matter could add uncertainties to metagenomic trait estimations” (opens in new tab), Nature Microbiology, vol. 9, pp. 1431–1433, 2024.
- Hanson C.A., Horner-Devine M.C., Martiny J.B.H., Fuhrman J.A., “Microbial Biogeography” (opens in new tab), Encyclopedia of Biodiversity Third Edition Volume 1 7, pp. V2-V2-827, 2024.
- Scales, NC, Huynh, KT, Weihe, C, Martiny, JBH, “Desiccation induces varied responses within a soil bacterial genus” (opens in new tab), Environmental Microbiology, vol. 25, pp. 3075-3086, 2023.
- Barbour, KM, Weihe, C, Walters, KE, Martiny, JBH, “Testing the contribution of dispersal to microbial succession following a wildfire” (opens in new tab), mSystems, vol. 8, pp. e00579-23, 2023.
- Piton, G, Allison, SD, Bahram, M, Hildebrand, F, Martiny, JBH, Treseder, KK, Martiny, AC, “Life history strategies of soil bacterial communities across global terrestrial biomes” (opens in new tab), Nature Microbiology, vol. 8, pp. 2093-2102, 2023.
- Rodriguez, CI, Keshavarzian, A, Hamaker, B, Liu, F, Lunken, G, Rasmussen, H, Zhou, H, Tap, J, Swanson, K, Ukhanova, M, Leclerc, M, Gotteland, M, Navarrete, P, Kovatcheva-Datchary, P, Dahl, W, Martiny, JBH, “Curated and harmonized gut microbiome 16S rRNA amplicon data from dietary fiber intervention studies in humans” (opens in new tab), Scientific Data, vol. 10, pp. 346, 2023.
- Martiny, JBH, Martiny, AC, Brodie, E, Chase, AB, Rodríguez‐Verdugo, A, Treseder, KK, Allison, SD, “Investigating the eco‐evolutionary response of microbiomes to environmental change” (opens in new tab), Ecology Letters, vol. 26, pp. S81-S90, 2023.
- Barrón-Sandoval, A, Martiny, JBH, Pérez-Carbajal, T, Bullock, SH, Leija, A, Hernándex, G, Escalante, AE, “Functional significance of microbial diversity in arid soils: biological soil crusts and nitrogen fixation as a model system” (opens in new tab), FEMS Microbiology Ecology, vol. 99, pp. fiad009, 2023.
- Finks, SS, Martiny, JBH, “Plasmid-encoded traits vary across environments” (opens in new tab), mBio, vol. 14, pp. e03191-22, 2023.
- Loreau, M, Jarne, P, Martiny, JBH, “Opportunities to advance the synthesis of ecology and evolution” (opens in new tab), Ecology Letters, vol. 26, pp. S11-S15, 2023.
- Barbour, KM, Barrón-Sandoval, A, Walters, KE, Martiny, JBH, “Towards quantifying microbial dispersal in the environment” (opens in new tab), Environmental Microbiology, vol. 25, pp. 137–142, 2022.
- Walters, KE, Capocchi, JK, Albright, MBN, Hao, Z, Brodie, EL, Martiny, JBH, “Routes and rates of bacterial dispersal impact surface soil microbiome composition and functioning” (opens in new tab), The ISME Journal, vol. 16, pp. 2295-2304, 2022.
Most Cited Publications
- S. Allison, J.B.H. Martiny, “Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 105, pp. 11512-11519, 2008.
- J.B.H. Martiny, B. Bohannan, J. Brown, R. Colwell, J. Fuhrman, J. Green, M.C. Horner-Devine, M. Kane, J. Krumins, C. Kuske, P. Morin, S. Naeem, L. Ovreas, A.-L. Reysenbach, V. Smith, J. Staley, “Microbial biogeography: Putting microorganisms on the map” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 4, pp. 102-112, 2006.
- Cavicchiolo, R, Timmis, K, Ripple, W, “Scientists' warning to humanity: Microorganisms and climate change” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 17, pp. 569-586, 2019.
- C.A. Hanson, J. Fuhrman, M.C. Horner-Devine, J.B.H. Martiny, “Beyond biogeographic patterns: processes shaping the microbial landscape” (opens in new tab), Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 10, pp. 497-506, 2012.
- J.B. Hughes, J.J. Hellmann, T.H. Ricketts, B.J.M. Bohannan, “Counting the uncountable: statistical approaches to estimating microbial diversity” (opens in new tab), Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 67, pp. 4399-4406, 2001.
- Malik, AA, Martiny, JBH, Brodie, EL, Martiny, AC, Treseder, KK, Allison, SD, “Defining trait-based microbial strategies with consequences for soil carbon cycling under climate change” (opens in new tab), The ISME Journal, vol. 14, pp. 1-9, 2020.
- J.B.H. Martiny, J.A. Eisen, K. Penn, S.D. Allison, M.C. Horner-Devine, “Drivers of bacterial beta-diversity depend on spatial scale” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 108, pp. 7850-7854, 2011.
- Martiny, J.B.H., Jones, S.E., Lennon, J.T., Martiny, A.C., “Microbiomes in light of traits: a phylogenetic perspective” (opens in new tab), Science, vol. 350, pp. aac9323, 2015.
- M.C. Horner-Devine, M. Lage, J.B. Hughes, B.J.M. Bohannan, “A taxa-area relationship for bacteria” (opens in new tab), Nature, vol. 432, pp. 750-753, 2004.
- Nelson, M.B., Martiny, A.C., Martiny, J.B.H., “Global biogeography of microbial nitrogen-cycling traits in soil” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 113, pp. 8033-8040, 2016.
Contact Information
Email: jmartiny@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-0487
Address: 3029 Biological Sciences III
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Last updated on 6/18/2026.