He is an immigrant from Sweden with a background in engineering, zoology, limnology and marine biology and work with scientist across the globe on various issues in aquatic ecology and fisheries. Current larger projects are in the Laurentian Great Lakes working with lower trophic level dynamics, and Oneida Lake with fisheries and ecosystem effects of invasive species.

Rudstam’s research is at the interface between basic and applied science with special interest in food web dynamics and the interactions between fisheries management and ecosystem processes. He is also interested in spatial and temporal patterns of animal distributions and what causes those patterns, partly because heterogeneity in the different organisms’ response to space and time affect food webs and ecosystem dynamics. Currently, he works with lower trophic levels and fisheries across the Great Lakes, from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario, with long term analysis of ecosystem processes in Oneida Lake, and with comparative analyses of aquatic ecosystems across the globe. He teaches fish ecology and work with managers, mostly in New York and Canada, as part of technical committees.