William San Martín

Affiliated Department or Office

Community Climate Adaptation MS Program

Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development MS Program

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Initiative

International & Global Studies Program

Great Problems Seminar (GPS)

William San Martín (he/him/él) is an Assistant Professor of Global Environmental Science, Technology, and Governance in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). For more than a decade, his research has focused on the management, science, and policy of nitrogen, a substance essential to food production but also central to some of the most difficult environmental and political challenges facing global agriculture. His work examines how expert knowledge about nitrogen is produced and engaged in policymaking, how farmers and communities manage nutrients in practice, and how efforts to build more sustainable and resilient agricultural and food systems distribute benefits, risks, and responsibilities across the Global North and South.

He currently co-leads the International Nitrogen Network (iN-Net), an NSF-funded network of networks working at the intersection of nitrogen science and policy. iN-Net brings together researchers, civil society organizations, and policy actors to identify research gaps and policy priorities, advance policy-relevant research, and support the development of national action plans and international action on sustainable nitrogen management. San Martín also chairs iN-Net’s Governance Working Group, which brings together more than 30 experts from academia, government, and civil society to examine how nitrogen is governed across sectors and scales, identify gaps and barriers, and outline concrete steps toward more coordinated, democratic, and context-responsive approaches to nitrogen governance.

San Martín earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Germany. At WPI, he teaches and advises students working on global environmental change, sustainability, science and technology, and environmental governance. He is affiliated with the graduate programs in Community Climate Adaptation, and Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development, as well as undergraduate programs in International & Global Studies, the Great Problems Seminar (GPS), and WPI’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies initiative.

Beyond WPI, San Martín is a Scholar with the Climate Social Science Network at Brown University, a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project, based at Uppsala University, and a Research Associate with the African Anthropocenes Research Centre at Stellenbosch University. He also serves as an Associate Editor of Contaminants, Environment, and Society.

Visit Digital WPI to view student projects and research advised by Professor San Martín
For courses taught at WPI and MIT, visit Professor San Martín’s personal website

Affiliated Department or Office

Community Climate Adaptation MS Program

Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development MS Program

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Initiative

International & Global Studies Program

Great Problems Seminar (GPS)

Visit Digital WPI to view student projects and research advised by Professor San Martín
For courses taught at WPI and MIT, visit Professor San Martín’s personal website

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 1: No Poverty

SDG 1: No Poverty - End poverty in all its forms everywhere

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

SDG 2: Zero Hunger - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities - Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Responsible Consumption and Production Goal

SDG 13: Climate Action

SDG 13: Climate Action - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

SDG 14: Life Below Water

SDG 14: Life Below Water - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

SDG 15: Life on Land

SDG 15: Life on Land - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions Goal

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Scholarly Work

Professor San Martín’s work focuses on global nitrogen governance with special attention to issues of expertise, policy, and inequalities in the Global South.

FEATURED WORKS:

Cunha-Zeri, G., Iyabano, A., Perry, K., San Martín, W. (In Press). From Awareness to Political Will: Why Education and Engagement Are Essential for Sustained Action on Nitrogen Pollution. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.

Kanter, D., Graversgaard, M., Ahlström, H., Liefferink, D., Wiering, M., San Martín, W. (In Press). A Governance Framework for Better Nitrogen Management. In M. Sutton, Leach, A., Brownlie, W., (Eds). International Nitrogen Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Capozzola, C., San Martín, W. (2025). Animal Histories and The Pacific War: Decentering Violence and Destruction. In Bailey, B., Isenberg, A., Landsberg, P. (eds) The US Military and the Pacific Environment: The Making of an American Lake. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

San Martín, W. (2024). The Forgotten Super Pollutant: An Epilogue on the History of Pollution Governance. NiCHE - Network in Canadian History & Environment.

San Martín, W. (2024). Book Review: Thomas D. Rogers. Agriculture’s Energy: The Trouble with Ethanol in Brazil’s Green Revolution. Environmental History, 29, 4, 2024.

San Martín, W. (2024). La Revolución del Nitrógeno en Chile. Expertos, Instituciones y el Desafío de la Sustentabilidad Agrícola. In Carlos Sanhueza and Lorena Valderrama (eds). Historia de la Ciencia y la Tecnología en Chile, Vol. 2 Ciencia e Historia Medioambiental. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.

O’Gorman, Emily, William San Martín, Mark Carey, and Sandra Swart (eds). (2023). Routledge Handbook of Environmental History. London and New York: Routledge.

O’Gorman, E., Carey, M., San Martín, W., Swart, S., (2023). Introduction: Framing Environmental History Today and for the Future. In Emily O’Gorman, William San Martín, Mark Carey, and Sandra Swart (eds). Routledge Handbook of Environmental History. London and New York: Routledge.

San Martín, W., & Wood, N. (2022). Pluralising planetary justice beyond the North-South divide: Recentring procedural, epistemic, and recognition-based justice in earth-systems governance. Environmental Science & Policy, 128, 256-263.

Bakermans, M., LeChasseur, K., Pfeifer, G., San Martín, W. (2022). Who Writes and Who Responds? Gender and Race-based Differences in Open Annotations. Journal of Multicultural Education. 16, 5, 508-521.

San Martín, W. (2021). Unequal Knowledge: Justice, Colonialism, and Expertise in Global Environmental Research. Global Environment, 14(2), 423-430.

San Martín, William, Alexandra Vlachos, and Graeme Wynn. (2020). Epidemics & Ecologies. Reading in the Time of COVID-19, ICEHO – International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations.

San Martín, W. (2020). Global Nitrogen in Sustainable Development: Four Challenges at the Interface of Science and Policy. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Life on Land. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham.

Professional Highlights & Honors

Research Fellow, Earth Systems Governance Project, 2022

Carson Fellow, Rachel Carson Center for Environment & Society. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, German Ministry of Education & Research, 2021

Co-PI, Enhancing STEM Curriculum with Latin American and Caribbean Studies, U.S. Department of Education, International Studies and Foreign Language Program, 2020 - 2023

Global Lab Fellowship, Global Lab, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2019

Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, 2016 - 2017

Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship for Excellence Award, University of California, Davis, Division of Social Sciences, 2016

Dissertation Improvement Grant, University of California, Davis, Institute for the Social Sciences (ISS), 2015

Fulbright Scholar, 2011 - 2015