2026 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

Jeferson Lourenco (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Animal & Dairy Science at the University of Georgia. He earned his Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition and leads a research program focused on livestock. gastrointestinal microbiomes, feed efficiency, and greenhouse gas mitigation in cattle production systems. His work integrates microbiology, animal nutrition, bioinformatics, and advanced statistical modeling to better understand how microbial communities influence animal performance and sustainability. Dr. Lourenco leads large-scale microbiome research projects involving beef cattle across the United States and has developed predictive models linking microbiome composition to feed efficiency traits. In addition to his research program, he teaches graduate-level courses in microbiome bioinformatics and mentors students in computational and microbiome sciences.