Profile Details

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Hire Dr. Robert A.

United States

USD 50 /hr

PhD Plant Genomics | Climate Adaptation & Extreme Environment Specialist | 30yrs Academia & Industry | Monsanto Veteran

Profile Summary

Dr. Robert M. Alba | Plant Genomics & Climate Adaptation Specialist With 30 years' experience bridging academia, industry, and start-ups, I specialize in the genomics of plant adaptation to extreme environments—precisely what agriculture needs as climate change intensifies. My expertise includes speciation genomics, genome evolution, and the molecular mechanisms underlying stress tolerance in plants. Core Expertise: • Climate Adaptation Genomics: Drought tolerance, heat stress resistance, extreme weather resilience • Advanced Bioinformatics: NGS analysis, genome evolution, population genomics, phylogenomics, transcriptomics, variant analysis • Technical Proficiency: ADMIXTURE, BBmap, bcftools, BEAST, bedtools, freebayes, GATK, hifiasm, iqtree, MEGA, minimap2, MrBayes, MUMmer, OrthoFinder, OrthoMCL, PHYLIP, picard, plink, RAxML, STACKS, vcftools, R programming, Linux systems • Industry Applications: Crop improvement, breeding program support, biomarker discovery Professional Background: • PhD Plant Biology with 35 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals • Industry Veteran: Monsanto research scientist + agricultural biotech startup experience • Academic Excellence: Tier 1 research universities, successful grant proposals (NSF, USDA, DOE) • Current Focus: Self-employed consultant specializing in speciation genomics and evolutionary adaptations to drought and heat What I Deliver: Transform complex genomic datasets into actionable insights for crop improvement. Whether you need genome evolution analysis to identify stress-tolerance traits and adaptive mechanisms, transcriptome analysis for genes expressed during crop stress tolerance, population structure assessment for breeding programs, or bioinformatics pipelines for genome assembly or variant mapping, I provide publication-quality results with clear biological interpretations. Recent Project Examples: • Speciation genomics studies that identify drought tolerance loci • Genome scans that identify loci under positive selection • Molecular evolution studies that identifying loci for crop improvement • Phylogenomic analysis of stress adaptation across plant species • NGS pipeline development for population genomics studies • Biomarker discovery for extreme environment adaptations I work remotely with flexible scheduling, delivering results that bridge the gap between cutting-edge genomics and practical agricultural solutions. Let’s discuss how genomics can solve your toughest plant adaptation challenges.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Comparative Genomics
• ★ Molecular Evolution
• ★ Bioinformatics
• ☆ Computational Biology
• ☆ Evolutionary Biology
• ☆ Botany
• ☆ Plant Physiology
• ☆ Phytochemistry
• ☆ Cannabis/CBD
• ☆ Biochemistry
• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Biomarkers
• ☆ Microarrays
• ☆ Omics
• ☆ Transcriptomics
• ☆ Genomics
• ☆ Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)
• ☆ DNA Sequencing
• ☆ Gene Expression Analysis
• ☆ Genome Sequencing
• ☆ Exome Sequencing
• ☆ RNA Sequencing
• ☆ Molecular Ecology
• ☆ Cell Biology
• ☆ Agronomy & Crop Science
• ☆ Plant Biotechnology
• ☆ Data Analysis
• ☆ Data Exploration
• ☆ Cluster Analysis
• ☆ Data Visualization
• ☆ Data Mining
• ☆ Data Cleaning
• ☆ Systems Biology
• ☆ Deserts & Arid Regions
• ☆ Biomarker Discovery
• ☆ Agricultural Biotechnology
• ☆ Biomolecular Engineering
• ☆ Genetic Engineering
• ☆ Phylogenetics
• ☆ Science Education
• ☆ R
• ☆ Peer Review
• ☆ Literature Search
• ☆ Medical Writing
• ☆ Research Summaries & Abstracts
• ☆ Technical & Scientific Writing
• ☆ Manuscript & Journal Article Writing
• ☆ Experimental Protocols
• ☆ SOP & Protocol Writing
• ☆ Science Communication
• ☆ Scientific Proofreading & Editing
• ☆ Employee Training

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Technical Writing

Research User Research, Technology Scouting, Fact Checking, Gap Analysis, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review, Secondary Data Collection

Consulting Business Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting, Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Statistical Analysis, Image Processing, Image Analysis, Data Visualization, Big Data Analytics, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing, Data Insights

Product Development Product Evaluation, Concept Development, Product Launch Support, Prototyping, Reverse Engineering

Work Experience

Faculty Resaearch Assistant

Oregon State University

July 2024 - Present

Consultant/Owner

Alba Crop Genomics LLC

January 2016 - Present

Director of Agricultural Science

Bowery Farming

June 2017 - April 2018

Functional Genomics Lead, Data Mining Lead, Senior Research Scientist

Monsanto

October 2007 - October 2014

Senior Research Associate

Cornell University

January 2003 - October 2007

Education

Post-doctoral Fellow

Cornell University

January 2003 - October 2007

Ph.D., Botany

University of Georgia

October 1990 - June 1998

BSc Biology

University of California at Santa Cruz

October 1985 - June 1990

Certifications

• R programming

  coursera

  March 2016 - Present

• The Data Scientists Toolbox

  coursera

  January 2016 - Present

• Unix Fundamentals

  Washington University in St. Louis

  August 2013 - Present

• Bioinformatics

  J. Craig Venter Institute

  May 2013 - Present