Prof. Timothy Swager
John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry, MIT
Electronic and Optical Soft-Materials for High-Performance Sensors
Abstract
This lecture will detail the creation of ultrasensitive sensors based on electronically and optically active organic materials. A central theme of Prof. Swager's research is to produce materials that provide large responses to chemical stimuli that can lead to simplified hardware requirements to create sensors. Low-cost sensors enabled by these soft-materials can be used to create distributed networks and point of care healthcare technologies.
The simplest sensor to integrate with any electronic component is a chemiresistor. Chemiresistors can also be operated in a field effect configuration, where applied gate potentials can provide improved sensitivity and selectivity. Selectivity is critical in any sensor, and orthogonality between different analytes is key to developing any useful sensor. He will detail chemical concepts on how to achieve high selectivity in chemical sensors with applications relevant to agriculture and safety.
Prof. Swager will also discuss the use of exciton transport in electronic polymers to produce amplified fluorescence responses. These methods have broad utility in chemical and biosensing, including the detection of perfluoroalkane substances (PFAS) at ppt levels. Additional optical biosensor modalities will be presented for the detection of analytes including pathogenic bacteria.
About
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 joined the University of Pennsylvania (1990–1996) and returned to MIT in 1996 as a Professor of Chemistry, serving as the Head of Chemistry from 2005–2010.
He has published more than 575 peer-reviewed papers and holds 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 ACS Cope Award, the Chemists Gold Medal, The Pauling Medal, The Lemelson-MIT Award for Invention and Innovation, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
His research interests are in design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, energy storage, membranes, liquid crystals, and colloids. He has founded seven companies: DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule, C2 Sense, Xibus Systems, ArO-X, and Fluorityx.