Cluster Preface: Synthesis of Materials

Abstract

Timothy M. Swager is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry and the Director, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation 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 and returned to MIT in 1996 as a Professor of Chemistry and served as the Head of Chemistry from 2005 to 2010. He has published more than 450+ peer-reviewed papers and more than 90+ ­issued/pending patents. Swager’s honors include: Election to the ­National Academy of Sciences, an Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University, the ­Linus 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, and The Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award (ACS). Swager’s research interests are in design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, high-strength, liquid crystalline, and colloid materials. His inventions have had wide-ranging commercial impact, including the ­FidoTM sensors, which are the world’s most sensitive explosives detectors. He is the scientific founder of five companies (­DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule, C2 Sense, and Xibus Systems) and has served on ­numerous corporate and government boards.