Isaac González Martínez

Isaac González Martínez (July 8, 1871 – April 20, 1954) was a Puerto Rican physician. He was the first Puerto Rican urologist, and a pioneer in the fight against cancer throughout the island. González Martínez conducted many investigations and experiments in parasitology, bilharzia, leprosy and typhoid fever. González Martínez and Bailey Ashford were the founders of the first commission in Puerto Rico to study the causes of anemia. In 1914, he was named director of the biological laboratory of the sanitation service of Puerto Rico. In 1935, González Martínez founded the Puerto Rican League against Cancer. He also promoted the construction of Puerto Rico's first hospital specializing in oncology.

Early years González Martínez was born in a coffee plantation in the town of Utuado in the central mountainous region of Puerto Rico. His family moved to the City of Mayaguez where he received his secondary education. González Martínez earned a teachers certificate from the Normal School of Mayaguez and taught history and mathematics at a local school for a short time. In 1890, his family sent him to the School of Medicine of Barcelona in Spain where he earned a degree in medicine. Later he earned a doctoral degree at the Complutense University of Madrid.

González Martínez returned to Puerto Rico in 1900 and set up his medical practice in Mayaguez. He was named Director of the Laboratories of the Department of Health and also the head of the sanitation department in that city. González Martínez went to Spain to study the fields of urology and bacteriology. González Martínez was interested in epidemiology, the scientific study of epidemics, and went to Lisbon, Portugal with a Spanish commission who wanted to learn ways of controlling the spread of epidemics. and Ashford was the first to describe and successfully treat North American hookworm in 1899.

González Martínez founded "Anales de Medicina de Puerto Rico", a scientific journal. He was elected president of the Medical Academy of Puerto Rico in 1917. In 1919, he published a chapter on his findings of the Intestinal Bilharzias in the book La Práctica de la Medicina en el Trópico. Several public schools in different levels, called Isaac González Martínez, are also named after him.