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