Dr. Martínez-Colón was born and raised in Dorado-Puerto Rico and he did his BSc and MSc in geology at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus (¡¡¡Antes, Ahora y Siempre... Colegio!!!). During his tenure as an MSc student he worked for an engineering firm, did environmental and geological consulting, and was an Adjunct Professor at Universidad del Este in Carolina-Puerto Rico.

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For his PhD degree in marine science at the University of South Florida he worked on recent benthic foraminifers as stress response bioindicators of heavy metal pollution in estuarine environments from Puerto Rico. He had the opportunity to travel internationally (UK, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Lesser Antilles, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, The Netherlands, and Australia) and nationally to attend conferences and do research.

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Since 2016 at Florida A&M University, Dr. Martínez-Colón's laboratory is engaged in research addressing questions related to foraminiferal micropaleontology, environmental micropaleontology, heavy metal pollution, bioavailability, microbiomes, experimental culture work, coastal ecology, fate and trophic transfer of pollutants, microplastics, and recent foraminiferal assemblages in coastal ecosystems. In addition, he is also interested in Caribbean Paleogene (Oligocene)/Neogene (Miocene) benthic foraminiferal paleoecology.