Erika Martin has been named technology editor at the Pacific Coast Business Times.

Martin, who joined the region’s weekly business journal a year ago, moves over to a staff writer position from research director and special reports editor. In her previous post, she was responsible for producing the newspaper’s Top 25 lists and its 24 annual special reports.

She replaced outgoing longtime technology reporter and Senior Editor Stephen Nellis on Oct. 6 and got an introduction to the fast pace of the technology beat when she learned at 5 a.m. on Oct. 7 that UC Santa Barbara Professor Shuji Nakamura had won the Nobel Prize in physics. She led the newspaper’s web and print coverage.

A 2012 graduate of UCSB and a former staffer at the Daily Nexus, she already knows many of the players on the technology scene through the newspaper’s special report coverage. “She’s a great writer with a real passion for technology and innovation,” Editor Henry Dubroff said.

Martin can still be reached at emartin@pacbiztimes.com. Nellis has joined the digital tech news startup The Information in San Francisco.