Rate My Professor Kaoru Ikuma

Kaoru Ikuma is an Associate Professor and Cerwick Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering within the Engineering faculty at Iowa State University. She earned a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University in 2011, an M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2007, and B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Biology from the same institution in 2005. Her academic career at Iowa State University includes leadership of the Environmental Biofilm Microbiology Lab, where she serves as principal investigator.

Ikuma's research specializations include environmental microbiology and biotechnology, biodegradation of hazardous contaminants, sustainable water and wastewater treatment, water security, and environmental justice. Her projects examine the effects of environmental pollution on microbial genetic and physiological characteristics, particularly biofilms in aquatic systems, to advance sustainable environmental engineering solutions. She is principal investigator on a $3.246 million EPA grant awarded in 2022 to accelerate technical and community readiness for water reuse in small rural communities across the United States over four years. Additionally, she leads an interdisciplinary team funded by a $5 million National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant for developing 3D-printed biofilms to inhibit corrosion on materials like aluminum alloys and cement. Ikuma has received the Iowa State University Foundation Outstanding Early Achievement in Extension or Professional Practice Award in 2024, the James Huntington Ellis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Introductory Teaching in 2024, the College of Engineering Award for Early Achievement in Teaching in 2020, and the Joel and Judy Cerwick Faculty Fellowship. Key publications include Chavez A.R., Ikuma K. Filtered wastewater effluent promotes antibiotic tolerance by affecting Escherichia coli growth dynamics under tetracycline stress (Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2026); Croll H.C., Ikuma K. et al. Unified control of diverse actions in a wastewater treatment activated sludge system using reinforcement learning for multi-objective optimization (Water Research, 2024); Wang Y., Ikuma K. et al. Global survey of hgcA-carrying genomes in marine and freshwater sediments: Insights into mercury methylation processes (Environmental Pollution, 2024); Burton Z.T. et al. Corrosion inhibition of an aluminum alloy by environmentally derived microbial biofilms (Frontiers in Microbiomes, 2025); and Garretson K., Ikuma K. Identification of key proteins related to shallow and deep viable but non-culturable state in Escherichia coli exposed to monochloramine disinfection (Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2026).