“My crystal ball has never been one that’s very clear,” mused Frank Dohleman. Now self-employed at Climate, Agriculture and Partnership Solutions Consulting, Frank has had over a dozen different jobs since high school, including one as a technician during the early days of SoyFACE. Frank spoke about some of his career highlights, as well as how working at SoyFACE helped set him up for these positions.
Reflecting on his time after graduating with his bachelor’s degree in Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois, Frank stated, “I didn’t really have a lot of direction at that point…I had done an undergrad research project with [Prof.] Evan DeLucia, looking at growth chamber studies on the influence of high CO2 levels on oak saplings. So when the technician position at SoyFACE opened up, it seemed interesting to me, and it ended up being a really cool opportunity.”
Frank helped set up the first year of SoyFACE, spending his days gluing fumigation pipes together and getting everything up and running for the first field season. “I loved that it wasn’t monotonous day to day. There were a lot of hard days out there, but we also had a lot of fun together,” he said.
Once the site was successfully established, Frank went on to work as a technician propagating and planting Miscanthus that would be used in some of the first US-based Miscanthus field trials.
Later, Frank completed his doctorate degree at the University of Illinois, but not before taking a yearlong side-step into food service establishment management. Frank quickly learned that this was not going to be the job for him. “I realized I couldn’t spend the rest of my life doing that… I just didn’t see a long-term happiness coming out of that kind of work,” he explained, “So I went to Steve Long and said ‘Hey, Steve, I’m thinking about grad school. Should I do it? He said ‘yes’ and, well, here we are.”
Upon returning to the research world, Frank believed he had his career trajectory all figured out. “When I was in graduate school, I planned on [working in] academia. When I started my postdoc, I planned on academia,” he said, “But then I, as any good postdoc, was poking around on job websites.” It was here that he came across a job description at Monsanto for a position nearly identical to his Ph.D. project. “How often does that [opportunity] actually happen?,” he reflected. A successful interview and several lengthy pros and cons lists later, Frank left academia behind and embarked on what ended up being nearly a decade long journey at Monsanto [now Bayer].
When asked about the transition from academia to industry, Frank stated there were more similarities than differences. “Everybody is just trying to do good science,” he explained. However, working for a private corporation, especially one as controversial as Monsanto, did require some adjustments. Working in the regulatory department, Frank was surprised to learn that a significant portion of his time was dedicated to double-checking other people’s spreadsheets, even before the data made it to the organization’s quality control unit. “If you’re seen as this big evil corporation,” he said, “an honest mistake is perceived as trying to cook the books…The level of scrutiny that went into the science I did [at Monsanto], it just blew me away.”
The other major difference from academia that Frank noticed during his time at Monsanto was the level of teamwork that was required. However, Frank felt prepared for this transition, not just as a self-proclaimed ‘people person’ but also from his time as a technician at SoyFACE. Frank explained-
“I think that SoyFACE set everybody who went through it up so much better in their ability to work in a team and help each other out…the culture that got built there was phenomenal and hugely useful in the corporate space. I’ve seen a lot of folks who come through ‘every person for themselves’ Ph.D. programs and their shift into teamwork is a real struggle.”
As part of the regulatory team at Monsanto, Frank worked to deregulate the first drought tolerant corn products on the market, now known commercially as DroughtGard® Hybrids. These products introduced a gene derived from soil bacteria, called cold shock protein B (cspB), into corn. This gene helps to prevent proteins from folding improperly, a common response to drought stress, and therefore allows the plant to continue making essential proteins, even when water is limited. Frank’s experience as a whole-plant physiologist helped the group to better understand, and then explain to regulators, how this small genetic change translates to plant-level responses in a field setting. The results of the team’s field trials, published in 2014 in Plant, Cell & Environment, found that plants with the cspB gene were limiting their investment in leaf growth during periods of drought stress and, in doing so, were preserving more moisture in the soil. This soil moisture was then available to the plants later during kernel development, resulting in greater yields under drought stress.
Following deregulation of DroughtGard® Hybrids, Frank lead the crop physiology team at Monsanto. Part of this work involved the rigorous field testing of short stature corn. Short stature corn joined the ranks of other dwarfed crops, including short stature wheat and rice that were pivotal in the Green Revolution. It offers farmers greater wind resistance and easier access to their fields during the growing season, allowing for more precise management.
At the end of 2016, Frank transitioned into a job helping to form external partnerships at the Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto. This career change was driven most pressingly by Frank’s wife getting a new job in Oregon, so it was time to say goodbye to the corn fields of the Midwest and off to Oregon they went.
As part of his job at the Climate Corporation, Frank investigated how US corn systems have changed over time in their genetics, planting density and nitrogen management and how this has impacted water quality. Published in 2023 in the Journal of Environmental Quality, the study found that modern corn production systems, compared to the 1990s, have higher yields, use nitrogen more efficiently, and lose less nitrogen into waterways. “SoyFACE helped me set up for that [project],” Frank stated, “Working on a technician level meant I had to understand things like the fertility components of the field trials we were doing, but also there was the focus on the environmental factors, like CO2 or ozone, and then putting all of that together to try to drive toward a better outcome. It instilled within me that not only does the crop have to be high yielding, but the more environmental benefit we can have, the better.”
Once COVID-19 hit full force in 2020, Frank grew tired of the Zoom calls and swapped his position at the Climate Corporation for the title of Head Counsellor at Camp Dad. “I took that summer and just hung out with my kids. We went on bike rides, went to forest preserves, everything,” he said. Once his kids were back in school, Frank began his scientific consulting business, where he works currently. As a consultant, he helps his clients answer their scientific questions, with clients ranging from industry to academia. “The cool part about it is I get to do all the stuff that I like and less of the stuff that I don’t like…It splits the difference between a full-on corporate job and hanging out with the kids doing fun things,” he explained.
However, the crystal ball still may not be clear. Frank plans to stay on with consulting for a few years to maintain the work-life balance with his kids but isn’t set on staying there forever. “After they graduate high school, I could be a lot of things,” he said, “I could go back into the corporate world, I could see what’s available in academia…There are lots of options out there. I want to do something that’s interesting to me and has a benefit to society.”
Written by Megan Allen