Dr. Jeff Woods

Assoc. Dean for Research, Director, Center on Health, Aging, and Disability, and Professor, Dept of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

The Power of Poop: Exercise and the Gut Microbiota

Dr. Jeff Woods received his B.S. from UMass Amherst, his M.S. from Springfield College and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, with NIH post-doctoral training at the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation in psychoneuroimmunology. Dr. Woods is a Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology and the American College of Sports Medicine. Professor Wood’s area of interest is in the role of exercise in the modulation of immune function in the young and old, neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying exercise, and stress-induced immunomodulation. The broad goal of his research program is to generate a public health message regarding the effects of exercise on immune function and susceptibility to disease. Dr. Woods has received approximately $5 million in external funding, and has published over 125 scientific articles. He has received both the University of Illinois campus award for guiding undergraduate research, was named the King James McCristal Distinguished Scholar in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, and was recently named a Fellow in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program.