Kwang Cheol Jeong, Ph.D.

Professor of Animal Sciences

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

2023 Awardee

KC Jeong is an internationally respected expert in the areas of antimicrobial resistance, how bacteria cause disease and the gut microbiome.

Jeong studies microorganisms that make humans and animals sick and compromise the safety of food systems and public health. Jeong’s research also investigates possible solutions to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, which also affect both animals and people.

Jeong is a prolific researcher. Since 2018, he has received over $3.6 million in external funding and contributed to $15 million in research grants at UF, and Jeong’s studies have been published in high ranking journals such as Nature Microbiology, Nature ISME J, and PNAS. Over the past five years, he has published two book chapters and 70 peer-reviewed publications, and his work has been cited more than 3,600 times. One research highlight includes papers published in the Journal of ISME J. In that study, Jeong and his co-authors investigated the lifelong effects of animal genetics on the formation of the gut microbiome, which plays a key role in animal growth and immunity.

Jeong is also dedicated to educating the next generation of scientists. He has directed the work of six doctoral students and one graduate student, and he has supervised and advised numerous undergraduate interns, postdoctoral trainees and visiting scholars. His students’ dissertations have been selected or nominated for best dissertation at UF/IFAS, and his students have also been recognized by the University Scholar Program

In 2021, Jeong was an Andrew Carnegie Fellows Award Nominee and was awarded the University Term Professorship Award. He is also an editorial board member of three journals: Journal of Veterinary Science, Frontiers in Microbiology, and Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.