![]()![]()Timothy M. Swager is the
John D. MacArthur Professor of
Chemistry at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. A native of
Montana, he received a BS from Montana
State University in 1983 and a Ph.D.
from the California Institute of
Technology in 1988. After a
postdoctoral appointment at MIT he was
on the chemistry faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania 1990-1996
and returned to MIT in 1996 as a
Professor of Chemistry and served as
the Head of Chemistry from
2005-2010. He has published more
than 550 peer-reviewed papers and more
than 130 issued/pending patents.
Swager’s honors include: Election to
the National Academy of Sciences, an
Honorary Doctorate from Montana State
University, National Academy of
Inventors Fellow, The Pauling Medal,
The Lemelson-MIT Award for Invention
and Innovation, Election to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
The American Chemical Society Award
for Creative Invention, The American
Chemical Society Award in Polymer
Chemistry, The Christopher Columbus
Foundation Homeland Security Award,
and The Carl S. Marvel Creative
Polymer Chemistry Award (ACS).
Swager’s research interests focus on
soft materials and polymers for the
design, synthesis, and study of
organic-electronic, sensory, energy
harvesting, membrane, high-strength,
liquid crystalline, and colloid
materials. His liquid crystal
designs demonstrated shape
complementarity to generate specific
interactions between molecules and
includes fundamental mechanisms for
increasing liquid crystal order by a
new mechanism referred to as
minimization of free volume. Swager’s
research in electronic polymers has
been mainly directed at the
demonstration of new conceptual
approaches to the construction of
sensory materials. These methods
are the basis of the FidoTM explosives
detectors (FLIR Systems Inc), which
have the highest sensitivity of any
explosives sensor. Other
areas actively investigated by the
Swager group include radicals for
dynamic nuclear polarization,
applications of nano-carbon materials,
organic photovoltaic materials,
polymer actuators, separation
membranes, and luminescent molecular
probes for medical diagnostics.
He has (co)founded seven
companies (DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule,
C2 Sense, ArO-X, MoxAir, and Xibus
Systems) and has served on a number of
corporate and government boards.