Joanna Behrman interviews Piet Martens, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University. Martens recounts his childhood in the Netherlands and his introduction to solar physics at Utrecht University. He discusses his move to the United States to work at NASA Goddard and his impressions of the work culture in the U.S. Martens describes his work on the formation of solar filaments at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and on the Yohkoh Mission at Lockheed Martin. Martens next recounts his work for the European Space Agency and then his decisions to move to Montana State University and subsequently Georgia State University. Martens describes his experiences with interracial adoption and views on white privilege in science. Martens explains he research in solar weather prediction using machine learning and his work on other topics including the faint young sun paradox. The interview concludes with a reflection on undergraduate education and electronic publishing.