was born in Yauco, Puerto Rico. A physician-scientist, he is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves as the University of Louisville’s Executive Vice-President of Research. From 1978 to 1989 he was a film critic for the English journal Caribbean Business, and for the Spanish dailies El Reportero and El Mundo. He was a member of the University of Puerto Rico Press and Editorial Board from 1984-89. From 2001-2005 he presided over the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the body that establishes and helps implement the cultural policy for Puerto Rico. As the Board’s president, Martínez-Maldonado also presided over the Board of Trustees of Puerto Rico’s Performing Arts Center. In addition he served on the Board of the Corporation for Musical Arts, which runs the prestigious yearly Casals Festival. His poems and essays have appeared in Yunque, Revista de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Cariban, Mairena, Pharos, Linden Lane, Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and Cupey. His poems and novel have also appeared in anthologies in Puerto Rico and abroad. He is the recipient of the José Gautier Benítez Poetry Award from the University of Puerto Rico, and has received honorary mentions for his poetry from the Ateneo de Puerto Rico. Martínez-Maldonado’s has published five volumes of poetry (La Voz Sostenida, Palm Beach Blues, Por Amor al Arte, Hotel María, and Novela de Mediodía), and the novel Isla Verde.