Robert Washington-Allen

Photo of Robert Washington-Allen, Extension

Robert Washington-Allen

Associate Professor

Summary

I am interested in the research, teaching, and application of passive and active ground to satellite-based remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies to problems in landscape ecology, physical geography including synecology/biogeography, environmental monitoring, ecological restoration for developing solutions to restoring or maintaining the sustainability of dryland landscapes and their pastoral peoples.

Education

Hamilton Township H.S., 1978
B.S. The Ohio State University, 1983
M.S. Utah State University, 1994
Ph.D. Utah State University, 2003

Courses

Courses taught at the University of Tennessee:

GEOG 309: Special Topics: Pastoralism in Drylands, Undergraduate course.

GEOG 413: Introductory Remote Sensing of the Environment, Undergraduate/Graduate course.

GEOG 435: Biogeography, Undergraduate/Graduate course.

GEOG 493: Independent Study, Undergraduate course.

GEOG 494: Undergraduate Research Experience, Undergraduate course.

GEOG 500: Thesis Research, Graduate course.

GEOG 501: Colloquium in Geography, Graduate course.

GEOG 505: Directed Research, Graduate course.

GEOG 506: Directed Research, Graduate course.

GEOG 513: Advanced Remote Sensing, Graduate course.

GEOG 593: Independent Study, Graduate course.

Courses taught at Texas A&M University:

RLEM 314: Rangeland Management Principles Around the World, Undergraduate course.

RLEM 316: Rangeland Communities and Ecosystems, Undergraduate course.

ESSM 462: Advanced GIS for Natural Resources Management, Undergraduate/Graduate course.

ESSM 652: Advanced GIS: Problems in Spatial Modeling, Graduate Course.

ESSM 692: Graduate Independent Research, Graduate Course.

Courses taught at The University of Virginia:

EVSC 410/710: Introductory Remote Sensing, Undergraduate/Graduate course.

Courses taught at National University of Lesotho’s Lesotho Agricultural College, Lesotho, Southern Africa:

Agricultural Mathematics,

Soil Physics & Conservation Management

Principles of Rangeland Science & Management

Agricultural Extension

Honors and Awards

  1. University of Tennessee’s Office of Undergraduate Research Award for an Undergraduate Research Assistantship of $2000 and $250 for materials, Spring 2017
  2. Nominated for Chancellors Honors Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year, 2016-2017
  3. Nominated for Board of Directors of the Society for Range Management 2017
  4. Nominated for 2nd Vice President of the Society for Range Management 2017
  5. Teaching for Impact Grant, Title: Virtual Sandbox ($500), Teaching & Learning Center, University of Tennessee, 2016
  6. Sigma Xi Graduate Student Research Presentation Competition (2nd Place, $100), UT Sigma Xi Chapter, (I am on the PhD Committee of Xiaoyu Lu, who won the award and I am the last author of this presentation) 2015
  7. Southeastern Conference Visiting Faculty Travel Award ($1,000), 2014
  8. Neuhaus-Shepardson Faculty Development Grant ($2000 and $2000), 2011 and 2012
  9. Selected by Ecological Society of America to “Profile of Ecologists” in honor of accomplishments in the field of ecology for the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Savannah, GA http://www.esa.org/education/whatdoecologistsdo.htm 2003
  10. The Don Dwyer Award from the College of Natural Resources, Utah State University for Best Dissertation in the Department of Forest, Range, and Wildlife Sciences, 2002
  11. Best of Session-Plenary for Oral Paper entitled: Dynamical Retrospective Assessment of Rangelands Using Historical Satellite Remote Sensing Imagery presented at the Third International Conference on Geospatial Information in Agriculture and Forestry on 5-7 November, 2001 in Denver, Colorado, 2001
  12. Lockheed Martin Energy Research Co. Research Accomplishment Award, 1999
  13. East Tennessee Chapter of the Society for Technical Publications Award for Scholarly/Professional Article, 1999
  14. ORNL Supplementary Performance Award, 1997 and 1998
  15. Utah State University Minority Graduate Student award for Academic Achievement, 1993
  16. Utah State University Graduate School’s Allen and Alice Stokes Martin Luther King Jr. Minority Fellowship, 1991-1994

Service

University and Department Service

Departmental and College Service at the University of Tennessee:

Geography Search Committee Member for Department Head, Fall 2016 – Spring 2017

Graduate Program Committee Member 2016-2017

Special Events Coordinating Committee 2016-2017

Elected Connections/Global Packages Committee Representative to College of Arts & Sciences Committee 2016 - 2019

Department Representative for Spring Graduation Ceremonies 2016

Department Representative for Fall Graduation Ceremonies 2015

Departmental Colloquium Organizer Fall Semester 2015

Stewart McCroskey Fund Committee, (chair) 2015 - 2016

Stewart McCroskey Fund Committee, (member) 2014 - 2015

Stand-In for Dr. Li to the UT Undergraduate Council, 2014

Faculty Meeting Minutes Recorder 2014 - 2015

Diversity Graduate Recruitment 2014 - present

Robert G. Long Award Masters Committee 2014

Technical Fee Committee member, 2014-present

Claxton Space Coordinator 2013 - present

Graduate Publications Committee 2013

Graduate Specialty Examinations Committee 2013

Burchfiel Geography Space Committee 2013

 

Departmental and College Service at Texas A&M University

Search Committee member 2008, 2011 for Blackland Research & Extension Center Assistant Professor in Agroecosystems

Search Committee member 2009 Department of Ecosystem Science & Management, Texas A&M University Selection for Integrative Ecosystem Scientist at Associate/Full Professor tenured/tenure track position

 

Departmental and College Service at Utah State University

Search Committee member 1992 for Dean of Graduate School

Participant/panelist 1991 First and Second African/African-American Summits in Cote d’ Ivoire and Gabon

 

Professional Service to Government Agency

Grasslands, Rangelands & Pastures Indicator Team 2012-present National Climate Assessment of the US Global Change Program.

Steering Committee of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine and Mexico Academy of Science on Sustainability Science in US-Mexico Border Drylands October 2017 - December 2018

News & Journal Articles, Fact Sheets, Reports...

Bulletins
Herbicide resistance evolution in Johnsongrass Holmes, K. H., J. L. Lindquist, R. Rebarber, R. Werle, M. Yerka, and B. Tenhumberg. 2022, Bull Ecol Soc Am 103(2):e01961
Fact Sheets
Applications, Benefits, and Challenges of Genome Edited Crops
The paper discusses the advancements and potential of genome editing in agriculture, how genome editing tools are being applied and regulated, benefits for producers and consumers, and recommendations to ensure genome editing in agriculture benefits society.
 Evanega, S., Brown, Z., Bubeck, D., Falck-Zapeda, J., Chou, F., Graham, N., Karavolais, N., Tripathi, L., and Yerka, M. 2024, The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
sorghum fallon nevada
Sorghum Production in Nevada
This fact sheet aims to educate it's readers on sorghum as an alternative crop for Nevada, varieties of sorghum, and key considerations for the production of sorghum crops.
 Walia, M., Yerka, M., Washington-Allen, R., Andrade-Rodriguez, M., and McCuin, G. 2021, University of Nevada, Reno, FS-21-09
Journals
Transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveal regulatory networks associated with nutrition synthesis in sorghum seeds
We analyze spatiotemporal transcriptome and metabolome profiles during sorghum seed development in the inbred line ‘BTx623’. The availability of this data in the sorghum reference genome line establishes a baseline for future studies as new pangenomes emerge.
 Adil Khan, Ran Tian, Scott R. Bean, Melinda Yerka & Yinping Jiao 2024, Communications Biology volume 7, Article number: 841 (2024)
Progress in, Targets of, and Resources for Mining Alleles in Sorghum Candidate Genes | Chapter 10
This chapter focuses on the success stories in sorghum that have identified functional alleles for major effect genes, but also details the opportunities that exist for allele mining in the era of publicly available sorghum pangenomes and genomic database resources.
 Boyles, R. E., Rhodes, D. H., Yerka, M. K., Hayes, C. M., Brenton, Z. W., Behnke, M.-F., Emendack, Y. & Sanchez, J. 2024, Allele Mining for Genomic Designing of Cereal Crops | Vol. 1
Physiological and molecular analysis of glyphosate resistance in non-rapid response Ambrosia trifida from Wisconsin C. Wilson, H. Takano. C. Van Horn, M. Yerka, P. Westra, D. Stoltenberg 2020, Pest Management Science, Volume76, Issue1, Pages 150-160
Genome wide analysis of Ga1-s modifiers in maize Hurst, P., Liang, Z., Smith, C., Kadam, D., Yerka, M. K., Sigmon, B., Rodriguez, O., Schnable, J. 2019, Plant Direct, 2019-07-02
Independent Evolution of Acetolactate Synthase–inhibiting Herbicide Resistance in Weedy Sorghum Populations across Common Geographic Regions Werle, R., Begcy, K., Yerka, M. K., Dweikat, I., Jhala, A., Mower, J., Lindquist, J. 2017, Weed Science. Volume 65, Issue 1, pp. 164-176
Distribution of herbicide resistant shattercane and johnsongrass populations across Nebraska and Kansas. Werle, R., A. J. Jhala, M. K. Yerka, and J. L. Lindquist. 2016, Agronomy Journal. 108:321-328.
Evaluation of interallelic waxy, heterowaxy, and wild-type grain sorghum hybrids. Yerka, M. K., J. J. Toy, D. L. Funnell-Harris, S. E. Sattler, and J. F. Pedersen. 2016, Crop Science. 56:1-9.
Crop Science 55:681-687. Yerka, M. K., A. Watson, J. J. Toy, G. Erickson, J. F. Pedersen, and R. Mitchell. 2015, Yield and forage value of a dual-purpose bmr-12 sorghum hybrid.
Registration of A/BN641 and RN642 waxy grain sorghum genetic stocks. Yerka, M. K., J. J. Toy, D. L. Funnell-Harris, S. E. Sattler, and J. F. Pedersen. 2015, Journal of Plant Registrations. 9:258-261.
Registration of N619 to N640 grain sorghum lines with waxy or wild-type endosperm. Yerka, M. K., J. J. Toy, D. L. Funnell-Harris, S. E. Sattler, and J. F. Pedersen. 2015, Journal of Plant Registrations. 9:244-248.
Reduced translocation is associated with common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) tolerance to glyphosate. Yerka, M., A. Wiersma, B. Lindenmayer, P. Westra, W. Johnson, N. de Leon, and D. Stoltenberg. 2013, Weed Science. 61:353-360.
Pollen-mediated gene flow in common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album). Yerka, M. K., N. de Leon, and D. E. Stoltenberg. 2012, Weed Science. 60:600-606.
Corn morphology, mass, and grain yield as affected by early-season red:far-red light environments. Markham, M. Y. and D. E. Stoltenberg. 2010, Crop Science. 50:273-280.
Red:far-red light effects on corn growth and productivity in field environments. Markham, M. Y. and D. E. Stoltenberg. 2009, Weed Science. 57:208-215.