Jimena Ibagon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Dr. Hans Stein. She earned her B.S. in Animal Science from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and completed a one-year internship in 2018 at South Dakota State University under the guidance of Dr. Tofuko Woyengo, where she gained extensive experience in laboratory techniques and swine management. In 2020, she joined the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Lab as a visiting scholar, conducting animal experiments and laboratory analyses focused on the evaluation of alternative feed ingredients and the determination of net energy in swine. In 2021, she began her M.S. program in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois, also under the supervision of Dr. Stein, where she completed her thesis titled “The nutritional value of field peas from different origins and with different particle sizes fed to growing pigs,” successfully defended in April 2023. Jimena passed her preliminary Ph.D. examination in January 2025, and her current research focuses on the use of soybean meal in diets for growing pigs and reproducing swine, with an emphasis on evaluating feeding strategies that influence nitrogen excretion and greenhouse gas emissions.