Gary Martin was a Carson Fellow from February 2010 to May 2010, from August 2010 to September 2010, from January 2011 to June 2011, in August 2011 and from January 2012 to August 2012.
Gary Martin is an ethno-ecologist who focuses on the inextricable links between biological and cultural diversity and the role of communities in maintaining socio-ecological resilience. His applied research and training experiences in more than forty countries led to the publication of his 1995 book Ethnobotany, which is used as a university course textbook and field research manual. In 1996, he received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2000, he founded the Global Diversity Foundation (GDF) which helps indigenous peoples and local communities maintain their agricultural, biological, and cultural heritage through long-term projects encompassing research, training, and social action. Since 1998, he has been a research fellow and lecturer at the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.
While at the Rachel Carson Center, he is exploring the adaptation of local knowledge societies and systems to global change, drawing on case studies that he has developed through the GDF over the last decade. He also organizes the Global Environments Summer Academy (GESA).