David J. Hagan

Dr. David J. Hagan is the Dean of CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and holds the rank of Pegasus Professor. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1985. His research focuses on nonlinear optical materials characterization, optical power limiting, and ultrafast nonlinear phenomena. He has served as founding Editor-in-Chief of Optical Materials Express and as Executive Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Optics Letters.

Dr. Hagan's research group investigates nonlinear optical effects in waveguides, signal processing, and materials response at picosecond/nanosecond timescales. His work spans topics like three-photon absorption in semiconductors, nonlinear index modulation in epsilon-near-zero materials, and femtosecond spectroscopy of organic dyes.

He has received prestigious awards including the OSA and SPIE Fellowships, the 2017 Pegasus Professor title, and multiple Research Incentive Awards. His advising spans over 28 Ph.D. students, many of whom have contributed to breakthroughs in nonlinear optics and photonics.

Key collaborations include work on two-photon absorbing squaraine derivatives and ultrafast gain dynamics in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs). His lab employs advanced techniques such as Rayleigh interferometry for refractive index measurements and common-path interferometry for solvent characterization.