FULLERTON : Cal State Professor Wins Top Honors

A mathematics professor at Cal State Fullerton will receive the California State University system’s outstanding professor award, university officials said.

David L. Pagni, a popular teacher who recently won the outstanding professor award at his own university, will receive the state system’s highest honor Wednesday.

Pagni will share this year’s award with Thomas P. Onak, a Cal State Los Angeles chemistry professor.

It is the fourth time since Cal State Fullerton classes started in 1959 that a faculty member from the campus has won the statewide honor, Cal State Fullerton spokeswoman Pam McLaren said.

Pagni is known for finding novel ways to teach math. For elementary school students, he uses stories and songs to show how math can be fun in daily life.

For high school and college students, he might show how calculators can be used almost like hand-held games.

Since joining the Fullerton faculty in 1969, Pagni has developed and directed more than a dozen programs helping both instructors and students from the level of elementary school to college, officials said.

In the process, he has won more than 30 grants totaling about $4.25 million.

Santa Ana’s public school classrooms have been the stage for many of Pagni’s research projects.

A grant from the National Science Foundation aided him in teaching other teachers to improve how they deliver lessons and pulled parents into the picture to involve them in their children’s education, he said.

Pagni attended Cal State Chico, Notre Dame University, Cal State Fullerton and the University of Wisconsin.

He will receive $4,000 for winning the award, officials said.