Dr. Joel W. (Jody) Martin is Associate Vice President for Research and Curator of Crustacea at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. As a scientist he has studied and written about the natural world for more than 40 years. He has collected new species of marine creatures by SCUBA diving in the Caribbean, Hawaiian Islands, and South Pacific, and from more than two miles deep in the Eastern Pacific aboard the submarine DSV Alvin. In his role as a professional marine biologist, he has authored or co-authored close to 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and books. His other passion is writing about fly fishing; he has published essays and stories in a wide variety of magazines and journals (including The Drake, TROUT, American Fly Fishing, The American Fly Fisher, California Fly Fisher, The Loop, Strung Sporting Journal, Hatch, Southwest Fly Fishing, Tail, and more). He is the recipient of the prestigious Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award from the John Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing. He is also a certified fly casting instructor (CI) through Fly Fishers International and currently serves as Casting Director of the largest U.S. council of FFI. Dr. Martin also hosts fly fishing and writing retreats in Pennsylvania and Colorado.
