Ken Ragan graduated with a B.Sc. in Honours Physics from the University of Alberta in 1980, and obtained his D.Sc. in Particle Physics from the University of Geneva in 1986. He then spent three years as a post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia prior to moving to McGill University in 1990 as a faculty member. He is currently a Professor and William C. MacDonald Chair in the Department of Physics at McGill. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Bordeaux, at the University of Paris VI, and at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

For many years his research interests centred around particle colliders, and specifically the CDF experiment studying proton-antiproton collisions at Fermilab, where the top quark was discovered in 1995. More recently his interests have moved towards the area of particle astrophysics, and centred around the STACEE and VERITAS ground-based high-energy gamma-ray observatories.

He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, most recently large freshman introductory physics classes, where he has been involved in introducing technology and techniques designed to enhance student participation and learning.

He has been a CAP member for more than 20 years, has served as a CAP Councillor and as the Chair of the CAP-NSERC Liaison Committee, and currently serves as the vice-chair of the CAP Scientific Policy Committee. He served on NSERC's GSC 19 (Sub-atomic Physics) from 1999 to 2002 (including chairing the committee in 2002), and chaired the NSERC 2006 Long Range Planning Committee on sub-atomic physics.