Professor Martin is the director of the Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry at Harvard University. His research focuses on research and engineering solutions to the major environmental challenges presently facing the world. His laboratory works specifically on problems of air & water pollution and their relationship to climate change.

Professor Martin and his group are currently working on several problems of environmental chemistry and technology. An important focus is on the connections among biological emissions in the Amazon Basin, the formation of particles from those emissions, and the ability of those particles to influence cloud formation (e.g., biological-climate connections and feedbacks mediated by chemistry). They complement this work on the chemistry and processes of atmospheric particles using the Harvard Environmental Chamber. The chamber is used in ways directed toward understanding the particle-relevant chemistry of pristine atmospheric environments and the effects of pollution on those environments. He was the Principal Investigator of the Amazonian Aerosol Characterization Experiment (AMAZE-08), and he directs the Harvard Environmental Chamber. He was Principal Investigator for "Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5).