Jennifer B. H. Martiny
Jennifer Martiny is a Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine, the co-Director of the UCI Center for Microbiome Science, and leads the Microbiome Centers Consortium, a national network of over 40 microbiome centers. She studies microbiomes, the collection of microorganisms that inhabit all ecosystems on Earth. Her primary focus is on understanding the mechanisms that govern microbial diversity and their importance for the overall function of ecosystems. As co-director of the Center for Microbiome Science, Martiny has conducted research on the microbiomes of soil, the ocean and the human body. Her work on soil samples from Orange County parklands revealed that bacteria and fungi influence how ecosystems respond to drought. Among many honors, Martiny is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Martiny received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University, studying diversity patterns and conservation biology of birds, butterflies, and flies. She is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.