Cross-Pollination

Courtesy of Pioneer Hi-Bred

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont Company, was ranked the best large place to work this year, after taking the top spot last year and placing tenth in 2007. The agricultural company, founded in 1926 and now home to over 8500 employees worldwide, engineers products like drought-tolerant corn and rice, high oleic content corn, and improved weed and insect control products. The recipe for Pioneer's success is a combination of varied work, friendly culture, and opportunity for global travel.

Scientists at Pioneer often have expertise in a broad range of fields–including entomology, pathology, genetics, and statistics—says 11-year veteran and maize research director Dave Bubeck. "It's a very multidisciplinary science field," he says. Bubeck, for instance, has training in agronomy, genetics, and plant breeding. Developing an insecticide- tolerant crop, for instance, may require a knowledge of the growth patterns of diverse plant species, entomology, as well as plant genetics and molecular biology to predict the consequences of genetic manipulation. The varied nature of the work ensures an "intellectually stimulating environment," he says.

During the growing season, "a significant percent of my time is spent outside, probably about 40–50%," he says. Pioneer also has offices, as well as dozens of nurseries, in countries around the globe. That means lab researchers in the United States have the option to travel several times a year to places like Chile and Hawaii, while Indian scientists often visit the Johnston, Iowa headquarters, says Shoba Sivasankar, a Johnstonbased agronomist who has been with Pioneer for nine years.