Irving G. Kagan, former assistant professor of zoology at the University of Pennsylvania, died of cardiac arrest April 26. He was 100. 

Dr. Kagan was born in the Bronx during the Spanish Flu pandemic. During World War II, he was a lieutenant navigator of B-29s and flew 38 missions over Japan. As a result of his navigational skills, which kept his plane at the lead of many bombing missions over Japan and facilitated a heralded rescue of his crew from the Pacific, he was awarded a Purple Heart, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and an Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters.

Dr. Kagan earned his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College. After the war, he earned his doctorate in zoology from the University of Michigan and did post-doctorate work at the University of Chicago. He came to the University of Pennsylvania as an instructor in zoology. In 1955, Dr. Kagan became an assistant professor.

He moved with his family in 1957 to Atlanta to join the Centers for Disease Control, where he was appointed director of the parasitology division. His research led to the development of diagnostic and immunologic tests for malaria, schistosomiasis and other parasitic diseases. In his 26-year tenure at the CDC, Dr. Kagan conducted extensive research and, together with a team of scientists and medical doctors working under him, published over 400 papers on parasitic diseases. He traveled widely as an ambassador of the CDC and as a consultant to the World Health Organization. In 1975, he was a member of one of the earliest presidential scientific delegations from the CDC to China. Dr. Kagan also served on the faculty of the Emory University Medical School for 10 years. 

In 1982, Dr. Kagan retired from the CDC and established his own laboratory, where he continued his scientific research, including on the newly emerging AIDS epidemic, and offered serologic testing to the medical community for malaria and other parasitic diseases. Dr. Kagan retired in 2017.

Dr. Kagan received the American Society of Parasitologists’ Henry Baldwin Medal in 1965 and the CSL Behring award for his work on schistosomiasis in Egypt in 1977. He was vice president of the World Federation of Parasitologists and president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine. Dr. Kagan was appointed as a charter member of the Senior Executive Service in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter. He was also a dedicated civil rights advocate and supporter of Jewish causes. 

His wife, Mildred, was the first social worker to establish a psychotherapy practice in Georgia. Dr. Kagan is survived by his family: Mila and Jule Kagan, Daniel Rosenbaum, and Arieh, Barbara, Alyssia and Liam Shands/Rosenbaum.