He is known for early work on maize anaerobic metabolism, developmental genetics of the maize ligule, proposing the grasses as a single genetic system model with Jeffrey Bennetzen, and the discovery of biased gene retention following whole genome duplications in plants.
He then join Drew Schwartz's research group at the Indiana University Bloomington where he also worked with Marcus Rhoades.
[3] In 1980 he was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow which supported his time as a visiting professor at the Rothamsted Experimental Station, in England[3][4] In the 1980 Freeling found an early response to anaerobic conditions is the suppression of the translation of mRNAs.
[5] He also found that the cytoplasmic acidosis was a good predictor of how poorly plants can tolerate flooding stress.
[10] Between 1973 and 2014 Freeling was the mentor for 27 PhD students and 49 postdocs, including four who went on to also be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.