Paul Kusuma

College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Plants, Soils, and Climate

Paul Kusuma is a doctoral candidate working with Dr. Bruce Bugbee in the Crop Physiology Laboratory on a number of projects related to plant growth in indoor environments including closed habitat systems for future deployment on Mars. He received his bachelor’s degree in horticultural science from theUniversity of Florida, where he gained research experience under the direction of Dr. Kevin Folta on projects related to plant photobiology. At Utah StateUniversity he stays involved with numerous projects related to sustainable growth in controlled environments. His research primarily focuses on investigating how the color, intensity and duration of light interacts with plant development. He has also worked on the development of high-efficiency lighting technologies for use in Space, and is involved on projects related to nitrogen fixation and nitrogen recycling in closed-loop systems. These projects benefit both Martian and Earth-based systems. Finally he contributes to projects related to optimizing the growth of medical cannabis. These ongoing projects have resulted in several publications and book chapters. He plans to graduate from his doctoral program in spring 2021. After leavingUtah State University, he will be taking a post-doctorate position at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, a renowned agricultural university