Athens, Ga. – Roy P. Martin, professor emeritus of the University of Georgia department of educational psychology and instructional technology, recently received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the School Psychology program of the University of Texas.
Martin, who served on the UGA faculty for 26 years, has received the B.N. Phillips Distinguished Alumni Award, an honor given every three years to either a practitioner or an academic. Martin was only the fourth academic to be given the award in the history of the program.
While at UGA, Martin twice served as chair of the department of educational psychology (1985-89, 1999-2001) and was chair of the Division of Counseling Educational Psychology, and Instructional Technology (1988-91). He was also president of Division 16 (School Psychology Division) of the American Psychological Association. He received the Jack Bardon Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychological Association in 2001 and was named Aderhold Distinguished Professor in the UGA College of Education in 2004.
Martin authored or co-authored seven books, a dozen chapters, nearly four dozen articles in refereed journals and made more than 75 presentations at professional meetings around the globe.
His research focused on season of birth and child behavior, pre- and peri-natal insults on child development, temperament and personality development. His most important papers studied the effects of gestational smoking on the long-term mental and physical health of offspring and how season of birth is associated with student retention rates, general achievement levels, and the rate of diagnoses of specific learning disabilities.
Martin, who received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Texas in 1970, continues to teach part-time at UGA, provide assistance on two grants, and is working on a book on prenatal factors that have been shown to affect the learning and behavior of children and adolescents.
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