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.
