Dr. David F. Cattell, Department Chair
Dr. Cattell received his Bachelor of
Science degree in physics from Drexel University in 1972. In 1974
he received his Master of Arts in physics
from Temple University. He continued his graduate work in physics
at Temple and in 1981 he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree.
While at Temple University he and his thesis advisor, M. A. Melvin,
wrote a paper entitled Neutrino, Maxwell, and Scalar Fields
in the Cylindrical Magnetic or Plasm Universe which was published
in the Journal of Mathematical Physics. (J. Math. Phys. 20(9),
September 1979). Dr. Cattell's doctoral thesis was on neutrino,
Maxwell and scalar fields in cylindrical and spherical relativistic
spaces. At Community College of Philadelphia he has been involved
in efforts to integrate computer-aided methods into Physics Department
courses. From April 18, 1998 to June 15, 1998 he participated
in a faculty development project to produce faculty skills in
the use of state-of-the-art hardware and software used by Drexel
University to teach engineering. The work was done at the Lebow
Engineering Labs of Drexel University. Overseeing this project
was Dr. Robin Carr of Drexel University. In 1999 Dr. Cattell proposed
a revision of the Engineering-Science curriculum based on the
project work at Drexel. He helped write an NSF grant proposal
that would help implement this revision. As part of the curriculum
revsion, Dr. Cattell wrote two new courses: ENGR
102 (Engineering Design and Laboratory I) and ENGR 202 (Engineering
Design and Laboratory II). In these
courses students use industry-standard workstations to learn how
computers are used for engineering design, problem solving and
data acquisition. Two other Physics faculty members, Mr. Thomas
Schaffer and Mr. Raymond Ruland, also made valuable contributions
to these courses.
In 2004 Dr. Cattell proposed a second
revision of the Engineering-Science curriculum and wrote another
new course, ENGR
205 (Materials Engineering), to help
establish an articulation agreement with Drexel University for
students majoring in Engineering-Science.
Dr. Cattell is a member of the American Physical Society and the American
Association of Physics Teachers. He
has been Department Chair since 1996.