Russell M. Kulsrud (born 10 April 1928 in Lindsborg, Kansas) is an American physicist who specializes in plasma physics and astrophysics. Kulsrud studied at the University of Maryland where he received his bachelor's degree in 1949, and then at the University of Chicago, where he completed his master's degree in 1952 and received his doctorate from Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1954 (Effect of Magnetic Fields on Generation of Noise by Isotropic Turbulence). From 1954, he was in the Matterhorn Nuclear Fusion Project at Princeton University and subsequently at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In 1964, he became head of the theoretical department. In 1966, he became a professor at Yale University. He was Professor of Astrophysical Sciences in 1967 until he retired in 2004.