Bill has worked in industrial biotechnology since 1987, first at DeKalb/Pfizer Genetics from which he and his colleagues reported on the successful production of fertile transgenic maize plants in 1990. After moving to Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1993 his lab has continued to focus on improving transformation of recalcitrant maize inbreds, first in the area of cell cycle stimulation to provide a positive growth advantage, and later working with morphogenic genes such as LEC1, WUS and BBM. As part of a growing team of researchers, recent progress with morphogenic genes has resulted in greatly increasing the efficiency and speed in the transformation process, extending transformation methods to many previously difficult-to-transform monocot crop varieties, and opening up new cell or tissue explants such as leaves for monocot transformation.