Dr. Brian Kerr was raised on a crop and swine farm in west-central Illinois and received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1988. He spent 3 years as Swine Technical Service Manager at Supersweet Feeds, 10 years as the Research Director for BioKyowa, a producer of amino acids, and the last 24 years as a scientist for USDA-ARS. His early career focused on refining amino acid requirements and use of crystalline amino acids in swine and poultry diets. He has also pioneered research to determine the feeding value and limitations of biofuels co-products, evaluated the effect diet composition on manure composition and gas emissions, assessed the role of lipid quality on caloric value, oxidative stress, and its mitigation in monogastric diets. Dr. Kerr was a committee member for the 2012 Swine NRC, was Section Editor and Editorial Board member for the Journal of Animal Science and has co-authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Kerr and his wife Liz have three daughters.