In 1985 Martien graduated at the University of Eindhoven on fluid flow and mass transfer. Het started his career at Holland Windturbine BV. Later he switched to Energy and in 1987, he became international researcher at the International Flame Research Foundation. In his spare time, het wrote his PhD on Mathematical Modeling of Pulverised Swirling Coal Flames. In 1992, he switched to Gasunie were he became senior researcher with repsect to energy conservation and clean combustion of natural gas. In 1996, he became economist at Gasunie followed by a position as group leader in gas market research. Later, he worked for (nowadays) GasTerra and in 2006, he became senior economist of Gasunie. In 2009, Martien became manager of the department of Network optimisation and Development. Since 2013, Martien is manager (long term) strategy at Gasunie. Meanwhile, since 2012, Martien became part-time professor at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the field of Energy Transition. Since 2004, Martien is Fellow at the Clingendael International Energy Programme, a think tank about energy policy in The Hague. In 2004, Martien was co-author of a policy report from CDA (Christian Democratic Party of The Netherlands) how to speed up energy transition. Since 2016, Martien is an invited monthly columnist as Energiepodium.nl (in Dutch).

At the centre of expertise, Martien is involved in the field of (electricity) network design, solar panels, heat networks and energy data.

Martien is professor in the European Master in Sustainable Energy and System Management and teaches the subjects of

• Technology, Plants and Integration
• Interaction between sustainable and fossil
• Reliability of Energy Systems

Martien's research interests are related to lowering the costs of energy transition, increasing the social acceptibility and making fast progress towards a low carbon society.