David Kistner

Department of Biological Sciences
1959–1992
Deceased: 2021

Recognized authority on the systematics of foreign organisms in social colonies of insects, which involved trips to most tropical regions of the world and thousands of collected, identified, and cataloged specimens.

Received 15 National Science Foundation grants to support his research and many of the 142 undergraduate and graduate students who assisted in his lab. Also did research for the California Department of Fish and Game and the EPA.

Fellow, Explorers Club of New York, Chicago National History Museum zoological department, and California Academy of Sciences and member, Entomological Society of America and the Society of Sigma Xi, each for more than 50 years.

Named systemwide “Outstanding Professor,” 1976, and received two campus outstanding professor honors.

Wrote or co-authored 200 scientific papers, given more than 100 public addresses and founded —and is still editor—of the scientific journal Sociobiology, believed to be the only scientific journal sponsored by a branch of CSU.