The Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes an APS member for their proficient and effective teaching of plant pathology.
Dr. Samuel Julio Martins was born in Araxá, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He earned his B.S. in agronomy from the Federal University of Lavras, Brazil (2010), where he also obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. in plant pathology (2012 and 2016, respectively). Son of illiterate parents, Martins’ love of teaching was grounded in his experiences teaching his parents each day what he had learned in elementary school. Martins’ formal academic teaching career began as a volunteer biology teacher for students of low socioeconomic status planning to attend college. Martins’ students’ gratitude upon getting their college acceptance enhanced his passion to help others through a life-long pursuit of education and teaching.
Martins excelled as Plant Pathology Instructor at the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, teaching General Plant Pathology and Crop Protection. He later moved to Penn State University in 2018, where he earned an online teaching certificate and co-taught Horticultural Crop Diseases. Since 2020, he serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida (UF) with a 50/50 teaching/research split appointment. At UF Martins has been teaching 3 courses: 1) Seminar in Plant Pathology, for which Martins attracted multidisciplinary and international speakers from industry, university, and government; 2) Plants, Plagues and People, an undergraduate course that addresses the impact of plant pathogens from early civilizations to the present; and 3) What Are Plants Talking About?, which is an entirely new multidisciplinary general education course developed by Dr. Martins. Martins’ innovative and collaborative pedagogical approach and his evident teaching passion results in frequently oversubscribed courses and student evaluations that are consistently above the departmental and college means.
Martins is a believer and emulator of the Japanese philosophy Kai Zen, or “continuous improvement.” He applies the philosophy in his classroom to better understand and improve the student learning process, while remaining grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). He stays up to date on the skills recommended for effective teaching and engages in the discipline of scholarship and teaching through publications in SOTL journals (see Martins et al. 2024; Pasche et al. 2024; Martins and Goss, 2023; Martins and Greenberg, 2022; Martins et al. 2021). Dr. Martins regularly introduces creative innovations in the classroom to engage students. Martins implements games, stories, magic, and other active learning strategies, which enhance broad student engagement and engages otherwise verbally shy students. He also employs innovative assessments, including two-stage, or two-tiered, exams whereby the individual exam is followed by group assessment and refinement of answers that are based on group consensus. Martins has internationalized his curriculum through involvement in the UF virtual exchange (VE) program. Currently, Martins has seven international VE partners. The VE projects expose students to international career path opportunities and allow students to contrast challenges and potential solutions in plant pathology and related subjects in the US and Florida with similar issues in different parts of the world and, at the same time, interact with international experts in the field.
Martins is a prodigious contributor to the UF teaching community and uses his pedagogical expertise to increase the value of a UF education. He often presents the results of his SoTL engagement at UF workshops and symposiums. Moreover, he is an integral member of the UF Plant Pathology curriculum committee, Graduate Student Committee, and steering committee for the undergraduate UF Plant Science degree program, where he represents Plant Pathology and collaborates closely with faculty from other departments to ensure that the Plant Science curriculum meets the needs of students across campus. Through a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant, for which he is the PI, he has been mentoring students from our department to conduct effective outreach programs, such as the workshop “Plants get sick too” for local teachers from Title I schools in Florida. Every semester Martins and students from the department also engage the public at our college-wide outreach fair.
Martins is officially recognized as among the most talented and committed instructors at the Univeristy of Florida (UF). UF entities have presented him with three teaching awards in his relatively short career at UF, including the Rising Star Award (2021), the SoTL Award (2022), and the Early Career Excellence in Teaching Award (2023). Martins’ teaching was also recognized nationally with the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Educator Award in 2024. Notably, the nominations for his teaching awards were supported by the dean of instruction at UF and from one of his students. “Martins’ collaborative teaching methods, relatability, and continuous openness to questions make him the most engaging professor I have ever had,” wrote a student from his class while nominating him for an award.
In addition to his teaching activities, he maintains a robust research program, exploring plant- microbe interactions and the structure and function of bacteria in the phytobiome and their impact on plant health. He has been awarded multiple multi-state grants as the PI ($3.8M) and co-PI ($1.7M) and was recently recognized by the American Phytopathological Society (APS) for the 2024 Schroth Faces of the Future Honorable Mention, for which he presented a webinar. With collaborators at six other institutions, he is leading a USDA-NIFA funded project and will develop undergraduate curricula on the importance of microbial predators in a healthy soil microbiome. Martins’ popularity in both teaching and research has attracted high quality students to the field of Plant Pathology. His lab has welcomed students from different races, nationalities, and sexual orientations. Martins has been an APS member since 2013 and actively participates in the society. For instance, he has organized and presented a section of the Plant Health APS National Meeting in 2021 about soil micro-predators, and he is also an associate editor for Plant Disease.
Martins’ commitment to education is positively impacting the University of Florida Department of Plant Pathology and has significant broader educational contributions for our discipline. Samuel Martins is a uniquely gifted instructor whose creative pedagogy is an asset to our profession and is truly deserving of the APS Excellence in Teaching Award.
