David Verbree, PhD

Bio Brief


Education

  • 2012 - Ph.D. Plant Breeding, Texas A&M University

    • Emphasis on Crop Physiology

    • Diversity Fellow and Graduate Assistant - Research

    • Dissertation title: “Physiology and Genetics of Drought Tolerance in Cowpea and Winter Wheat”

    • Studied the mechanism(s) of drought tolerance in cowpea and wheat by measuring canopy temperature using thermal imaging and stomatal conductance and gas exchange

    • Designed and conducted replicated field trials for cowpea varieties and release candidates

    • Developed and phenotyped RIL and NIL mapping populations for drought tolerance in cowpea

    • Designed a web-based plant breeding database, software to analyze thermal images, and software to analyze the mineral content of soils

    • Taught Soil Science laboratories

  • 2008 - M.Sc. Agronomy, The Pennsylvania State University

    • Graduate Research Assistantship

    • Thesis title: “Sediment and Nutrient Losses in Reduced Tillage Systems on Dairy Farms”

    • Conducted rainfall simulations on soils with varying properties and tillage treatments and fractionated and measured the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus species in runoff

    • Evaluated the nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency on tilled and no-till cropland on soil with varying drainage properties

    • Analytical expertise: Lachat QuickChem® Flow Injection Analysis for nitrogen species and persulfate digestion and Murphy-Riley determination for phosphorus species

    • Taught Introduction to Soils laboratory

  • 1999 - B.Sc. Computer Science, Calvin College

    • Emphasis on both software and hardware design

Work Experience

  • 2014 - present. Embedded Engineer. DornerWorks Ltd.. Grand Rapids, MI.

  • 2012 - 2014. Assistant Professor. University of Tennessee - Knoxville.

    • 75% research and 25% extension appointment

    • Supervised 6 staff including salary employees, summer workers, and a graduate student

    • Major research and extension themes:

      • Characterizing water and nitrogen requirements of cotton and water requirements of soybeans at different growth stages

      • Evaluating techniques used by high-yield soybean contest winners for a production environment

      • Evaluating the effect and interaction of row spacing, plant population, maturity, and latitude on soybean yield

      • Assessing new drought-tolerant corn varieties under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions for the mid-South

      • Integrating cowpeas as a summer legume in organic dairy systems for forage and grain production

  • 2009 - 2012. Graduate Research Assistant. Texas A&M University

  • 2007 - 2008. Graduate Research Assistant. The Pennsylvania State University.

  • 2006. Commercial/Industrial Carpenter. Mayzon Building Services Group. Rochester, NY.

  • 2003 - 2006. Software Engineer. DornerWorks Ltd.. Grand Rapids, MI.

    • Contracted to Smiths Aerospace (now GE Aviation)

    • Conducted R&D in temporal and spatial partitioning real-time scheduling in LynxOS and Linux

    • Designed DO-178B certified spatial and temporal partitioning-safe file system for NVM and RAM devices for flight management systems under VxWorks AE

    • Designed DO-178B certified NVM and serial and signal device drivers under VxWorks AE

    • Worked on ARINC 429, 1553, and serial communication protocols

    • Installed and maintained virtual lab resources including flight hardware

    • Wrote requirement documents, design documents, and test procedures

    • Performed test procedures and wrote problem reports

  • 2005 - 2018. Founder and Executive Director. Verbree International. Webster, NY and Burkina Faso, West Africa.

    • Non-profit/non-governmental organization conducting agricultural development projects in West Africa

    • Incorporated organization and obtained tax-exempt status

    • Wrote official organizational documents, policies, and grant proposals

    • Conducted assessments in remote villages

    • Funded a rangeland restoration project in Burkina Faso that involved teaching soil and water conservation techniques, species identification, and forage quality assessment through Farmer Field Schools

  • 2002 - 2003. Field Officer and Interim Head of Office. Shelter For Life International.

    • Herat, Ghor, and Badghis Provinces in Afghanistan.

    • Wrote grant proposals and administered over 4 M USD in grants funded by USAID, OFDA, and World Vision International.

    • Administered offices in Herat, Ghor, and Badghis provinces and a team of over 40 national engineers and support staff

    • Conducted surveys and assessments in remote villages

    • Projects included:

      • USAID/OFDA AOT-G-00-00-00259-00 - Constructed 4,200 one-room shelters and dug 88 wells for internally displaced peoples in Herat and rehabilitated over 100 km of primary routes in Ghor and Badghis

      • USAID HDA-G-00-03-00011-00 - Assisted 1,956 families in Herat City by providing a winterized living space

  • 1998 - 2002. Engineer II. Smiths Aerospace (now GE Aviation). Grand Rapids, MI.

    • Designed flight simulators to train pilots and certify flight management system products with emulation and integration of actual flight hardware.

    • Designed device drivers for aeronautical buses (429 and MIL-STD-1553)

    • Designed data acquisition and analysis tools for flight test data

    • Designed network protocols for distributed simulations

    • Designed tools and procedures for remote data-loading

Peer-Reviewed Refereed Publications

  • Cultivar and Phosphorus Amendment Impacts on Organically Managed Forage Cowpea Yield and Composition. Hill, Samantha L and Verbree, David A and Bates, Gary E and Butler, David M. The American Society of Agronomy, Inc.. p. 1623--1631. 2017

  • Cotton Response to Irrigation and Nitrogen Source in Differing Mid-South Soils. Grant, Timothy James and Leib, Brian G and Savoy, Hubert J and Verbree, David A and Haghverdi, Amir. The American Society of Agronomy, Inc.. p. 2537--2544. 2017

  • Runoff losses of sediment and phosphorus from no-till and cultivated soils receiving dairy manure. Verbree, David A and Duiker, Sjoerd W and Kleinman, Peter JA. American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society. p. 1762--1770. 2010

  • Yield response to planting date among soybean maturity groups for irrigated production in the US Midsouth. Salmer\'on, Montserrat and Gbur, Edward E and Bourland, Fred M and Buehring, Normie W and Earnest, Larry and Fritschi, Felix B and Golden, Bobby R and Hathcoat, Daniel and Lofton, Josh and McClure, Angela Thompson and others. The Crop Science Society of America, Inc.. p. 747--759.2016

  • Diversifying soybean production risk using maturity group and planting date choices. Weeks, Wes and Popp, Michael P and Salmeron, Montserrat and Purcell, Larry C and Gbur, Edward E and Bourland, Fred M and Buehring, Normie W and Earnest, Larry and Fritschi, Felix B and Golden, Bobby R and others. The American Society of Agronomy, Inc.. p. 1917--1929. 2016

  • Genetics and Heritability of Shoot Drought Tolerance in Cowpea Seedlings. Verbree, David A and Singh, Bir B and Payne, William A. The Crop Science Society of America, Inc.. p. 146--153. 2015

  • Residual effects of potassium to cotton on corn productivity under no-tillage. Zhou, Guisu and Yin, Xinhua and Verbree, David A. The American Society of Agronomy, Inc.. p. 893--903. 2014

  • Role of Gas Exchange, Leaf Water Status, and Carbohydrate Partitioning During the Early Vegetative Stage on Drought Tolerance in Cowpea. Verbree, David A and Singh, Bir B. and Payne, William A.. Crop Science Society of America, Inc.. p. 770--778. 2014

  • Soybean maturity group choices for early and late plantings in the Midsouth. Salmeron, Montserrat and Gbur, Edward E and Bourland, Fred M and Buehring, Normie W and Earnest, Larry and Fritschi, Felix B and Golden, Bobby R and Hathcoat, Daniel and Lofton, Josh and Miller, Travis D and others. The American Society of Agronomy, Inc.. p. 1893--1901. 2014

  • Physiology and genetics of drought tolerance in cowpea and winter wheat (Dissertation). Verbree, David Adrian. 2012

  • Runoff Losses of Sediment and Phosphorus from No-Till and Cultivated Soils Receiving Dairy Manure. Verbree, D. A., S. W. Duiker, and P. J.A. Kleinman. 2010. J. Environ. Qual. 39:1762-1770. doi:10.2134/jeq2010.0032