LEROY Frédéric graduated as a Bioengineer (Ghent University, 1998) and obtained a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, 2002), where he now holds a professorship at the Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology.

His research deals with bacterial communities in (fermented) foods, human and animal health, food studies, and 'food traditions'. He is a member of academic non-profit societies, i.e., the Belgian Association of Meat Science and Technology (BAMST, president), Belgian Society for Food Microbiology (BSFM, president), and Belgian Nutrition Society (BNS). On a non-remunerated basis, he also serves on the Scientific Board of World Farmers' Organization (WFO), FAO/COAG Sub-Committee on Livestock, and Danone Institute Belgium (president). He published >140 publications in peer-reviewed journals.