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The house sparrow is so common that most people hardly notice it. But for , the small brown bird has become the center of a global scientific collaboration spanning numerous countries and offering new insights into how animals — and perhaps humans — adapt to changing environments. A professor in the in the USF College of Public Health, Martin is an award-winning and internationally recognized scientific leader in ecological immunology and disease ecology. 

Martin’s fascination with biology began in childhood and was inspired by his grandfather, an avid outdoorsman who introduced him to Darwin’s discoveries and encouraged his curiosity about the natural world. He continued to pursue that passion in college, majoring in biology. 

“I had a great professor in undergrad that helped me crystallize the parts of biology that I liked,” Martin says. “I wasn’t a very good undergraduate student, but I wanted to do a master’s degree, and this professor took a chance on me.” 

Although he initially had little interest in birds, mentors encouraged him to study woodpeckers because they were easier to observe. The advice sparked a career-long interest in avian biology. 

“My first research project during my PhD was on this little bird called the house sparrow,” Martin says. “It started out as a pragmatic thing because they could be studied, handled and researched in ways that other regulated migratory and resident songbirds cannot.” 

After completing his PhD at Princeton University, Martin went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology and neuroscience at The Ohio State University. “I went to learn more about how to do immunology and neuroendocrinology, but that was all in the lab on mammals,” Martin explains. “I did a lot of the handling of animals, but I was ready to get back out in the natural world.” 

In 2007, Martin joined USF’s faculty. Since then, his scientific discoveries and highly cited research have advanced the field of evolutionary biology on a global scale. He’s published about 180 peer-reviewed articles; co-edited Integrative Organismal Biology, a definitive textbook in the discipline; and has been awarded about $5 million in research grants. He’s an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Ornithological Society. He has published around 180 peer-reviewed articles and has presented at conferences and seminars across Europe, Australia and South America, and countries from Kenya to Japan.

The little sparrow turned out to be a scientific game-changer.

“I went right back to my roots. The core of my research has been this little bird, the house sparrow,” Martin says. “There are so many different reasons as to why this bird, but recently, it’s because it’s one of the most broadly distributed species in the world, and it tends to be in places where people are,” Martin says. “Our histories have been intertwined for thousands of years.” Understanding how house sparrows adapt to different environments may also provide insight into how animals respond to emerging diseases and environmental change. 

“I went right back to my roots. The core of my research has been this little bird, the house sparrow.” — Lynn Martin

The widespread nature and history of the house sparrow are what led to this global collaboration between involving fellow scientists the United States, Canada, Israel, Senegal, Vietnam, South Africa, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands.  

“There are very few things that can live everywhere in the world,” Martin says, going on to explain that the house sparrows’ ability to thrive in diverse environments may stem from molecular epigenetic regulation, in which genes are turned on and off in response to changing conditions.  

“The 10 populations come from the comparative nature of the project,” Martin notes. “Five populations are native, and the other five are places where the birds have only been for the last 150 years or so.” 

Comparing these populations allows researchers to better understand how quickly species can adapt to new environments. “Getting to travel the world and study one of my favorite organisms is pretty amazing,” Martin says. “But I think the best part for me has been to learn how science works in different parts of the world.” 

In the lab, Martin serves as a research mentor and sometimes partner for students who are motivated to make their own discoveries about the natural world. “Seeing the transition from a student to an actual scientist is my favorite part of my job,” Martin says. “It’s pretty remarkable to see the light-bulb moment when they realize that nobody in the world has ever had the information they’ve worked for.” 

Martin’s advice for graduate students is to be realistic about the difficulty of the process while following their passion.

For Martin, science is not only about discovery but also about conversation and collaboration —a philosophy that extends beyond the laboratory through the , which he has co-hosted with Cameron Ghalambor, a professor and biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Colorado State University, for the past eight years. 

The podcast features conversations with leading scientists, journalists and thinkers, bringing some of biology’s biggest ideas to a broad audience. “We’re among the most popular biology podcasts in the world,” Martin explains. “It is everything that I wanted it to be in the sense that we’re talking to the best biologists about the coolest science.”