Dr. David KaganDr. David Kagan
David Kagan graduated from CSU Hayward (now East Bay) with a Bachelor's Degree in Physics in 1977. He immediately began graduate study in physics at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned perhaps the last Ph.D. in atomic spectroscopy in 1981. He became a faculty member at California State University, Chico in the same year. Kagan has been at CSU Chico for nearly forty years where his love of teaching physics at all levels is encouraged and rewarded by a department committed to quality physics education.Kagan is particularly proud of his role in establishing a degree program specifically designed to train high school physics teachers. It was one of the first in the country and one of only two appoved programs in the entire CSU. His dedication to future science teachers continued as servered as the Science Coordinator for the Mathematics and Science Teacher Initiative for nearly two decades.
Dr. Kagan has served as the Chair of the Department of Physics and as the founding Chair of the Department of Science Education. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he also served a year as Assistant Dean in the College of Natural Sciences. Kagan has served as an officer in the Northern California/Nevada Section of AAPT for four years culminating in a year as President.
As the Faculty Advisor of the Society of Physics Students for over twenty-five years, his students earned national recognition twenty times as an Outstanding Chapter. Kagan's service with SPS has also been honored on campus with the Myles Tracy Outstanding Student Organization Advisor twice, as well as the Society of Physics Students National Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award.
David Kagan is a regular contributor to The Physics Teacher having had published over thirty papers in the journal. He has served on the Editorial Board of TPT. Kagan continues his deep devotion to quality teaching by avidly engaging his students with methodologies adapted from the findings of Physics Education Research. In addition, Dr. Kagan has served as an expert witness. All the while he has remained true to his lifelong obsession with baseball by being a regular contributor to The Hardball Times.