Rate My Professor Robert Verb

Robert Verb serves as Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Nature Center Areas in the Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences at Ohio Northern University. He holds a B.S. from The University of Findlay and a Ph.D. from Ohio University. His academic career at ONU includes teaching courses in botany, freshwater ecology, and wetland ecology, as well as advising undergraduate research projects on topics such as herpetofauna surveys at the university's Tidd-Oakes Farm Nature Preserve, biodiversity in restored wetland ecosystems, benthic riffle macroinvertebrate communities, and woody species composition in the ONU Eastern Woodlot. Verb directs the university's Nature Center Areas, supporting environmental education and field-based studies. He has contributed to interdisciplinary initiatives like the Science Alliance, where he sampled fish, invertebrates, and algae in local ditches alongside colleagues.

Verb's research specializes in aquatic ecology, focusing on algal communities, periphyton assemblages, diatom responses to environmental variation, and the effects of acid mine drainage on lotic systems in the Western Allegheny Plateau. He has published 23 peer-reviewed works, accumulating 436 citations. Key publications include "Influences of a Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carriere (Eastern Hemlock) Riparian Habitat on a Lotic Benthic Community" (2016), "Diatom responses to microenvironment structure within metaphyton mats" (2016), "Effects of small-scale environmental variation on metaphyton condition and community composition" (2012), "A Two-year Survey of the Algal Community in a Woodland Stream from Southeastern Ohio" (2006), "Baseline analysis of periphyton community structure in agriculturally impacted lotic systems in West-Central Ohio" (2006), "Analysis of Diatom Communities in an Acid-Mine-Drainage-Impacted Subwatershed in Southeastern Ohio" (2006), and "Periphyton Assemblages as Bioindicators of Mine-Drainage in Unglaciated Western Allegheny Plateau Lotic Systems" (2005). His studies have advanced biomonitoring techniques using periphyton indices and examined algal colonization, nutrient limitation, and spatial heterogeneity in rehabilitated wetlands. Additionally, Verb participates in community efforts, including core sampling for wetlands restoration at Blue Heron Reserve and serving on the board of the Ohio Wetlands Association. In 2022, he was recognized for 15 years of service at ONU.