Swann left Sheffield in 1913, when he went to the
United States to join the
Carnegie Institute, becoming head of the Physical Division of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. He later became a professor at the
University of Minnesota, then at the
University of Chicago and
Yale University, where he was appointed the director of the Yale University Sloane Laboratory.
E. O. Lawrence, the 1939 Nobel Laureate in Physics, was one of Swann's graduate students at the University of Minnesota and followed his professor to Chicago and then New Haven. In 1924, Swann was an Invited Speaker of the
International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto. In 1927, at the age of 43, he became the first director of the
Bartol Research Foundation of the
Franklin Institute. Among his first acts as director was to arrange a contract to locate the foundation at
Swarthmore College, which is fairly close to
Philadelphia. He continued as director of the foundation until his retirement in 1959, when he was replaced by
Martin A. Pomerantz. He is particularly noted for his research into
cosmic rays,
high-energy particle physics and
Quantum mechanics.
Joseph Valasek, one of his graduate students at the University of Minnesota, discovered hysteretic charge-voltage behavior in
Rochelle salt, which led to the establishment of
ferroelectricity as a field of study. == Recognition ==