Rate My Professor Adam Kustka

Adam Kustka is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Newark, where he serves as Chair of the Geoscience (Geology) program. He earned a B.S. in Natural Resources Management with a focus on Fisheries Science from Cook College, Rutgers University, in May 1993, and a Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in August 2002, co-advised by Sergio Sañudo-Wilhelmy and Edward J. Carpenter. After completing his doctorate, Kustka held a postdoctoral position at Princeton University from September 2002 to November 2006 under the advisement of François M. M. Morel. He then served as a Research Associate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick from December 2006 to July 2008, working with Kay Bidle and John Reinfelder. Since August 2015, he has been affiliated with Rutgers University-Newark. In July-December 2017, he was a Sabbatical Fellow at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University, hosted by Peter Lobel and David Sleat. Kustka is also affiliated with the Rutgers Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and maintains an active lab group focused on his research interests.

Kustka's field of specialization is algal physiology and biogeochemistry, with research centered on phytoplankton from biomolecules to biomes, encompassing trace metal metabolism and carbon physiology. He teaches courses including 460:215 Environmental Disasters, 460:331 Oceanography, and Analytical Methods in Urban Environmental Pollution. His influential publications appear in high-impact journals such as Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Key works include "Phosphorus limitation of nitrogen fixation by Trichodesmium in the central Atlantic Ocean" (Nature, 2001), "Amazon River enhances diazotrophy and carbon sequestration in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean" (PNAS, 2008), "Niche of harmful alga Aureococcus anophagefferens revealed through ecogenomics" (PNAS, 2011), and "Carbonate-sensitive phytotransferrin controls high-affinity iron uptake in diatoms" (Nature, 2018). Other notable papers are "A general kinetic model for iron acquisition by eukaryotic phytoplankton" (Limnology and Oceanography, 2005) and "The role of unchelated Fe in the iron nutrition of phytoplankton" (Limnology and Oceanography, 2008). In 2015, he received the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence, recognizing exceptional promise in research following tenure. Kustka has obtained NSF funding, including a three-year NSF IOS grant as lead principal investigator with co-PIs Mark Hildebrand and Lewis Brown, and NSF grant 0839039 for collaborative research on diatoms. He contributes to university governance as a Rutgers University Senate faculty representative and serves on committees such as the Radiation Safety Committee and Research Grant Policy and Evaluation Committee.