Timothy Swager

Timothy M. Swager is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has authored >600 publication and >130 issued/pending patents. Swager’s honors include: Election to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, an Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University, the Linus Pauling Medal, the American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal, and the Lemelson-MIT Award for Invention and Innovation. His research interests are in design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, membrane, polymeric, liquid crystalline, and colloid materials.  He is a scientific founder of DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule, Hyperion Biosystems (formerly C₂ Sense), MoxAir, Xibus Systems, and Fluorityx.

Swager has been a leading innovator in the design of materials and processes for ultratrace sensing.  He demonstrated that electronic polymers could be used to amplify fluorescent signals and his amplifying fluorescent polymers (AFPs) are the basis of Fido Explosives Sensors, which even  20+ years after they were commercially introduced remain as the most sensitive portable explosives sensors ever produced.  The Fluorityx technology also makes use of the AFP methods to create the most sensitive PFAS systems to date.