As Chief of the NBS Atomic Spectroscopy Section (and its successor organizations) from 1962 to 1998, he led the development of its reference data resources on the spectra of rare-earth elements, substantially increased its coverage of highly excited and ionized species, and pioneered the publication of NIST Standard Reference Data on the internet.

In 1957 he was hired as a physicist by the National Bureau of Standards, where he spent the rest of his career, retiring in 1998 and remaining active as an emeritus member of staff until his death in 2013.

The generation, curation and publication of critically evaluated data on atomic energy levels was a major scientific activity of NBS when Martin joined its staff.

Martin began a long project of analysis of the spectra of the rare earths that resulted in numerous research publications and a fourth monograph,[5] that completed the NBS coverage of the periodic table up to the actinide series.

[7] At the time, it was widely believed that the ground electronic configuration of this element was 6s24f2, an error that could still be found in reference sources fifty years later.

Martin's publications on this spectrum, beginning in his early years at NBS and spanning five decades,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] remain the definitive sources of reference data as of 2013.