Juan Loor received a bachelor's in Animal Science from the University of California, Davis. He then moved to Virginia Tech for his MS and PhD degrees to study aspects of lipid digestion and metabolism in ruminants. Since joining the University of Illinois faculty in 2005, his research program has focused on nutritional and physiological genomics during lactation and growth in cattle. His laboratory draws on in vitro cell and tissue culture and live animals as models to uncover regulatory mechanisms associated with nutrient effects on the gut microbiota, tissue development, and function. Transcriptomics, metabolomics, microbiomics, and bioinformatics are some of the tools used in his laboratory to apply the systems biology approach in ruminant physiology. While at the University of Illinois, he has taught more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students as part of courses in Animal Nutrition, Ruminant Nutrition, Advanced Ruminant Nutrition, and Regulation of Metabolism. His excellence in teaching and research has been recognized locally and nationally through several honors from the American Dairy Science Association (2014 Zoetis Animal Physiology Award; 2016 Elanco Award for Excellence in Dairy Science; 2020 West Agro Inc. Award), the American Society for Animal Science (2018 American Feed Industry Award, Ruminant Nutrition; 2019 Animal Growth and Development Award; 2021 H. Allen Tucker Lactation and Endocrinology Award), and the American Society for Nutrition (2012 Mead Johnson Award; 2025 ASN Foundation Mentorship Award).