Dr. Joseph G.R. Martinez Honored for Contributions to Mathematics

    ALBUQUERQUE, NM, August 19, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dr. Joseph G.R. Martinez has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

A native of Los Alamos, New Mexico, who was born at LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) during the Manhattan Project and subsequently adopted by the Martinez family, Dr. Martinez harbored a lifelong talent in mathematics, particularly algebra, prior to embarking on his professional path. While only 11 months old, he was shown markings on two separate pieces of white paper, which fascinated his young mind. Years later, while in the 1st Grade at St. Francis Elementary School learning the English language, he borrowed a dictionary and several books of mathematics. There he found those same markings and many more! This was the first happy moment of his odd young life! While English was his first literal language, algebra was his first conceptually intuitive language.

Dr. Martinez overcame a tough experience throughout his formative years, fighting in the streets, protecting his adoptive mother, and surviving a hostile domestic environment that prepared him for the physical and psychological hurdles that he encountered in the U.S. Marine Corps. Enlisting in 1964 after graduating from St. Mary's Catholic High School, Dr. Martinez is incredibly grateful for his four years of service to his country before his civilian endeavors. The Marine Corps was his first actual family.

Dr. Martinez initially pursued a formal education at the University of New Mexico soon thereafter, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in English from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1973. During his studies at the University of New Mexico, he was accepted into The Phi Beta Kappa Society, a reputable academic honor society established in 1776 that recognizes students with stellar academic achievements in the liberal arts and sciences. At this juncture in his academic career, he was faced with a difficult career-determining decision.

Should he pursue what was in his brain or what was in his heart? In his brain lived different types or forms of mathematics; in his heart, he never forgot the pain his older brother, Phil, suffered while unable to learn mathematics and who refused to be taught mathematics by his younger brother! His wife, Nancy, urged him to try for a PhD in mathematics. After all, if he excelled, he might work at a think tank earning far more than an academic professor makes. He followed his heart: many students enrolled in mathematics courses needed him more than he needed money!

He subsequently transferred from A&S to the College of Education with the express purpose of learning how best to teach mathematics. There, he began his career as a teaching assistant in educational psychology within the Department of Educational Foundation at the University of New Mexico between 1973 and 1978. Although he was accepted into graduate school to further his professional interests in psychology, Dr. Martinez believed that future generations were in dire need of help in learning mathematics, therefore shifting his attention toward that field of education.

Following his inaugural position at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Martinez was additionally active as a part-time instructor at the Albuquerque Extension of National College between 1976 and 1982. Likewise, he was recruited as the director of the reading laboratory at the University of Albuquerque from 1978 to 1979. Refining his skills in teaching and the development of curriculum, Dr. Martinez eventually concluded his academic efforts at the graduate level with a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico in 1980.

Notably, Dr. Martinez is incredibly proud of his acclaimed doctoral dissertation, which measured iconic read-outs from super-fast readers in the Albuquerque region, including his wife, Nancy. In this study the perceptual encoding speed reading of unrelated letter strings of a group of super-fast readers was compared to the speed of very good readers. Statistically significant differences favored the performance of the super-fast group. Along with the co-chair of his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Peder J. Johnson, this work was published in Reading Research Quarterly (1982. Volume 18, Number 1. Pages 105-122).

As a result of the glowing reception to the study, which focused on the quantitative difference between the reader's perceptions, Dr. Martinez was nominated for the Popejoy Dissertation Prize, the highest possible accolade for a graduate student at the University of New Mexico and a true highlight of his career.

Dr. Martinez was hired by the University of New Mexico soon thereafter as a lecturer in educational psychology, basic statistical analysis, learning theory, and human growth and development from 1980 to 1982. He later worked in a number of roles with the University of Albuquerque between 1982 and 1985, including as an assistant professor of mathematics, education and psychology and the chair of the mathematics department. Furthermore, he briefly served as a professor of mathematics with a focus on calculus at the Valencia Campus of the University of New Mexico from 1985 to 1986.

Dr. Martinez climbed the ladder of academic success from assistant, associate, and full-professor positions from which he would ultimately excel in his most distinguished tenure as a Regents' Professor of graduate-level statistical analysis, inferential statistics, and research design in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico until his retirement in 2012.

Throughout his career in academia, Dr. Martinez had found a great deal of success outside of his primary responsibilities as well. He provided his wealth of expertise to the editorial board of the Journal of College Reading and Learning, thus expanding his reach beyond his classroom. Contributing his knowledge to multiple articles published in "Sharing Practices That Work" in 2011, he was appointed as a book and manuscript reviewer for The Mathematics Teacher between 1989 and 2019 and both a referee and reviewer for Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School between 2004 and 2008. Moreover, Dr. Martinez additionally exhibited his dedication to mathematics education as a media correspondent for The College Mathematics Journal between 1999 and 2000.

As a testament to his outstanding accomplishments, Dr. Martinez has been presented with myriad accolades throughout his career, including several Merit Awards from the College of Education at the University of New Mexico and a Certificate of Recognition from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He has also been featured in such esteemed publications as The New Yorker, Forbes Magazine, Fortune National, Wired Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. Dr. Martinez has attributed his exceptional success to his unshakeable faith in God, his need to offer all that he can to his personal and professional goals, and the heroic and selfless support of his late wife, Nancy.

Dr. Martinez has further demonstrated his commitment to aiding the world and society as a whole through his philanthropic engagement, continuing to donate to more than 260 charitable organizations. He also co-authored and partnered on the dissemination of "The Narrow Way Series," which functions as a theological, psychological, and philosophical analysis of end-times to be released over the next few years. In the coming years, Dr. Martinez aspires to write more books for publication while remaining as healthy as possible, having gone above and beyond to recover from an inherited pernicious anemia in the wake of his retirement in 2012.

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