About

Isaac William Martin is the Jeri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Science in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of California San Diego. He served as the founding Chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 2019 to 2025. His mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students has been recognized with four teaching awards at UCSD. His research focuses on housing policy, municipal taxation, and the political economy of inequality, and he has authored books such as Foreclosed America, Rich People’s Movements, and The Permanent Tax Revolt. Additionally, he is an editor of significant scholarly volumes including The New Handbook of Political Sociology, The New Fiscal Sociology, and After the Tax Revolt. His articles have been published in prominent journals like the American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Law and Society Review, and Urban Affairs Review. His work has garnered coverage on NPR and in outlets such as The New Yorker and The Washington Post. His books have received awards from the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the Social Science History Association. Dr. Martin holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California Berkeley, an M.A. in Sociology from Berkeley, and a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Carleton College.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Materials science
• Composite material
• Nanotechnology
• Medicine
• Mechanical engineering
• Biology
• Microbiology
• Immunology
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• The Bailout State: Why Governments Rescue Banks, Not People The Bailout State: Why Governments Rescue Banks, Not People, by KoningsMartijn. Hoboken, NJ: Polity Press, 2025. 256 pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 9781509564323.

  Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · 2026-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Organizing Pneumonia Secondary to Infliximab in a Pediatric Patient with Ulcerative Colitis

  Research Square · 2025-10-03

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Review of “My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America”

  Social Forces · 2025-08-07

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• What Drives Displacement? Involuntary Mobility and the Faces of Gentrification

  City and Community · 2024-08-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Recent quantitative studies on the relationship between gentrification and residential displacement have produced inconsistent findings. We examine whether these differences may be attributed to variation in the conceptualization and measurement of gentrification by testing a variety of different operational definitions of gentrification while holding data sources and other methodological decisions fixed. We treat gentrification as a family of related phenomena, estimate a family of operational measures of gentrification from Census data, and, for each measure in the family, test the association between gentrification and displacement in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that several relationships between gentrification and residential displacement are robust to the choice of measure from the family of gentrification measures we consider. In particular, we find no evidence that gentrification increases the probability of displacement for renters or homeowners, regardless of how gentrification is defined and operationalized. However, consistent with recent studies of particular metro areas, we find evidence that homeowners who live in gentrifying neighborhoods are less likely to be displaced than homeowners in comparable neighborhoods that are not gentrifying.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Effect of L-arginine on cystic fibrosis <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> biofilms

  Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy · 2024-07-18 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Cystic fibrosis (CF) airways are L-arginine deficient which may affect susceptibility to infection with certain pathogens. The potential impact of L-arginine supplementation on Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a common CF airway pathogen, is unclear. This study investigated the effects of L-arginine on P. aeruginosa biofilm cultures, using the laboratory strain PAO1 and multi-drug resistant CF clinical isolates. P. aeruginosa biofilms were grown in a chambered cover-glass slide model for 24 h, then exposed to either L-arginine alone or combined with tobramycin for an additional 24 h. Biofilms were visualized using confocal microscopy, and viable cells were measured via plating for colony-forming units. Increasing concentrations of L-arginine in bacterial culture medium reduced the biovolume of P. aeruginosa in a dose-dependent manner. Notably, L-arginine concentrations within the physiological range (50 mM and 100 mM) in combination with tobramycin promoted biofilm growth, while higher concentrations (600 mM and 1200 mM) inhibited growth. These findings demonstrate the potential of L-arginine as an adjuvant therapy to inhaled tobramycin in treating P. aeruginosa infections in people with CF.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• <i>What’s the Matter with Delaware? How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal—and How It Costs Us All</i>, by Hal Weitzman

  Publius The Journal of Federalism · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Journal Article What's the Matter with Delaware? How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal—and How It Costs Us All, by Hal Weitzman Get access What's the Matter with Delaware? How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal—and How It Costs Us All, by Hal Weitzman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023. 280pp. $27.95 hardback. Isaac William Martin Isaac William Martin University of California San Diego, USA iwmartin@ucsd.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, pjae029, https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjae029 Published: 01 August 2024

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optimized nutrition in mitochondrial disease correlates to improved muscle fatigue, strength, and quality of life

  Research Square · 2023-03-14

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract We sought to prospectively characterize the nutritional status of adults ≥ 19 years (n=22, 27% males) and children (n=38, 61% male) with genetically-confirmed primary mitochondrial disease (PMD) to guide development of precision nutritional support strategies to be tested in future clinical trials. We excluded subjects who were exclusively tube-fed. Daily caloric requirements were estimated using World Health Organization (WHO) equations to predict resting energy expenditure (REE) multiplied by an activity factor (AF) based on individual activity levels. We developed a M itoch o ndrial Disease Ac tiv ity F a c tor s (MOTIVATOR) score to encompass fatigue typical of PMD. PMD cohort daily diet intake was estimated to be 1,143 ± 104.1 Kcal in adults (mean ± SEM, 76.2% of WHO-MOTIVATOR predicted requirement), and 1,114 ± 62.3 Kcal in children (86.4% predicted). A total of 11/22 (54.5%) adults and 18/38 (47.4%) children with PMD consumed ≤75% predicted daily Kcal needs. Malnutrition was identified in 16/60 (26.7%) PMD subjects. Increased protein and fat intake correlated with improved muscle strength in those with insufficient daily Kcal intake (£75% predicted); higher protein and fat intake correlated with decreased muscle fatigue; and higher protein, fat and CHO intake correlated with improved quality of life (QoL). These data demonstrate the frequent occurrence of malnutrition in PMD and emphasize the critical need to devise nutritional interventions to optimize clinical outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Targeting Matrix Exopolysaccharides to Disrupt &lt;em&gt;Pseudomonas aeruginosa&lt;/em&gt; Biofilms in Cystic Fibrosis

  Preprints.org · 2023-02-02 · 6 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  In cystic fibrosis (CF), pulmonary infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a cause of increased morbidity and mortality, especially in patients for whom infection becomes chronic and there is reliance on long-term suppressive therapies. Current antimicrobials, though varied mechanistically and by mode of delivery, are inadequate not only due to eradication failure in many cases, but also because they do not halt the progression of lung function decline over time. One of the reasons for this failure is thought to be the biofilm mode of growth of P. aeruginosa, wherein self-secreted exopolysaccharides (EPSs) provide physical protection against antibiotics and an array of niches with resulting metabolic and phenotypic heterogeneity. Targeting the three EPSs secreted by P. aeruginosa (alginate, Psl and Pel) is currently under investigation as a way of disrupting the biofilm extracellular matrix to potentiate the action of antibiotics. In this review, we look at each EPS as a potential therapeutic target for combatting pulmonary infection with P. aeruginosa in CF, with a particular focus on the current evidence for these emerging therapies and barriers to bringing these therapies into clinic.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optimized Nutrition in Mitochondrial Disease Correlates to Improved Muscle Fatigue, Strength, and Quality of Life

  Neurotherapeutics · 2023-09-18 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  We sought to prospectively characterize the nutritional status of adults ≥ 19 years (n = 22, 27% males) and children (n = 38, 61% male) with genetically-confirmed primary mitochondrial disease (PMD) to guide development of precision nutritional support strategies to be tested in future clinical trials. We excluded subjects who were exclusively tube-fed. Daily caloric requirements were estimated using World Health Organization (WHO) equations to predict resting energy expenditure (REE) multiplied by an activity factor (AF) based on individual activity levels. We developed a Mitochondrial Disease Activity Factors (MOTIVATOR) score to encompass the impact of muscle fatigue typical of PMD on physical activity levels. PMD cohort daily diet intake was estimated to be 1,143 ± 104.1 kcal in adults (mean ± SEM, 76.2% of WHO-MOTIVATOR predicted requirement), and 1,114 ± 62.3 kcal in children (86.4% predicted). A total of 11/22 (50%) adults and 18/38 (47.4%) children with PMD consumed ≤ 75% predicted daily Kcal needs. Malnutrition was identified in 16/60 (26.7%) PMD subjects. Increased protein and fat intake correlated with improved muscle strength in those with insufficient daily Kcal intake (≤ 75% predicted); higher protein and fat intake correlated with decreased muscle fatigue; and higher protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake correlated with improved quality of life (QoL). These data demonstrate the frequent occurrence of malnutrition in PMD and emphasize the critical need to devise nutritional interventions to optimize clinical outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How Three Self-Secreted Biofilm Exopolysaccharides of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Psl, Pel, and Alginate, Can Each Be Exploited for Antibiotic Adjuvant Effects in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Infection

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2023 · 56 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Microbiology
  • Biology
  • Medicine

  in CF, with a particular focus on the current evidence for these emerging therapies and barriers to bringing these therapies into clinic.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Direct Democracy and the Significance of the Framing of Proposals

  NSF · $164k · 2014–2017

• Social Context and Revenue Measures

  NSF · $405k · 2018–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Shafinaz Eisha

  19 shared

• Su‐Bin Park

  18 shared

• Jonathan Chung

  18 shared

• Amanda J. Morris

  9 shared

• Amanda Sheffield Morris

  Oklahoma State University at Tulsa

  9 shared

• Christopher Niedt

  6 shared

• Monica Prasad

  Northwestern University

  4 shared

• Kevin Beck

  University of Hartford

  3 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology

  University of California - Berkeley

  2003

Awards & honors

• Awards from the American Sociological Association
• Awards from the Pacific Sociological Association
• Awards from the Social Science History Association