Associate Professor of Soil Science
Dr. Eugenia M. Pena-Yewtukhiw was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She received her B.S.
in Agronomic Engineering from the Central University of Venezuela in 1985, the valedictorian
in her college class of 220 individuals and Magna cum Laude. Her M.Sc. in Soil Chemistry,
from the same university, was awarded in 1995. Her 2003 Ph.D. in Soil Physics and
Hydrology is from the University of Kentucky, where she received one of the university’s
highest honors, a “UK Research Challenge Trust Fund Fellowship”. Before arriving
at WVU in late 2005, she was an assistant professor at the Central University of
Venezuela, a consultant, and the owner of her own sports turf field design and construction
company. She was well known as the professional baseball “Stadium Engineer” in Caracas.
She has dedicated most of her life to soil science research and instruction. As an
engineer and soil scientist she has worked on problems in precision agriculture,
soil physics and other agriculturally related areas. Today, as an associate professor,
she has developed an undergraduate and graduate research program where she examines
the sustainability of organic production systems by studying changes in soil physical
properties; uses precision agriculture approaches/technologies to integrate soil
properties and vegetative production with climate and management characteristics.
In the environmental area, she works to increase our understanding/capacity to predict
changes in soil hydrology and other soil physical properties due to human impacts
(urbanization, reclamation). In the spring of 2016 she was appointed Director of
the WVU Soil Testing Laboratory. She has embraced this challenge, bringing a more
service and research minded approach to the lab for the benefit of West Virginia
landowners/operators and their various needs.
Publications
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Pena-Yewtukhiw, E.M.
, J.H. Grove, and G. Schwab. 2015. Fertilizer N rate prescription, interpretational
algorithms and individual sensor performance in an array. Agronomy Journal.
J. 107: 1691-1700. http://dx.doi. org/doi:10.2134/agronj14.0573
-
Pena-Yewtukhiw, E.M
., J.H. Grove, C. Griffin, and K. Fetter. 2015. NDVI readings as a predictor
of
Miscanthus x giganteus
Biomass. Precision Agriculture’15. J.V. Stafford (Ed). Wageningen Academic Press.
111-118. ISBN: 978-90-8686-267-2
- Skousen, J., T. Cook, and
E. Pena-Yewtukhiw
. 2013. Survival and growth of chestnut backcross seeds and seedlings on surface
mines. J. Env. Qual. 42: 690-695.
- Chaudhuri, S.,
E.M.Pena-Yewtukhiw*
, L.M. McDonald, J. Skousen, and M. Sperow. 2012. Minesoil Surface Carbon
Sequestration Due to Reclamation Chronology. Soil Science. 177: 443-450.
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Pena-Yewtukhiw, E.M.,
J.H. Grove, E.G. Beck, and J.S. Dinger. 2009. Nitrate contamination of a domestic
well by an abandoned feedlot: I. Detection and characterization of the nitrate.