His interest in water resources led Marty to pursue a career working in water policy.

Martin, known to his classmates as Marty, graduated in Spring 2013 from Emory & Henry College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in French. After two years of graduate–level research at Northern Arizona University, he took a job at the Arizona Department of Water Resources. He currently works as a Water Resources Specialist where he takes an interdisciplinary approach to water resources management. Marty has always been interested in anything related to environmental science. When asked for his interests, he immediately listed “eco-systems science, water availability and regulation, and environmental policy.”

During his undergraduate studies at Emory & Henry, Marty traveled to 15 different countries including Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Italy, Andorra, Germany, Austria, Spain, England, Wales, Iceland, and France, where he studied for 6 months. He said, “International experience drives my interest in water conservation because access to clean drinking water is a human right.” Currently, he is conducting research on the decomposition of leaf material by microbes in streams and the transfer of nutrients to the aquatic food web. To Marty, one of his most memorable experiences in the Emory & Henry Honors Program is the thesis writing process. He said, “it helped to shape my understanding of science writing and is what got me to where I am today.”