Dr. Nancy Swanson graduated magna cum laude from Western Washington University with a B.S. degree in physics and math. She received her Ph.D. in physics from The Florida
State University. She worked eleven years for the United States Navy at the Coastal Systems Center in Panama City, FL and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. She was also an adjunct professor, teaching math and physics, at the Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City. Her research interests were in the area of laser light transmission and scattering through optically dense media. She has expertise in Radiative Transport, Mie scattering, Remote Sensing and Imaging, Non-destructive Testing, Ultra-fast Photography, Frequency Agile Laser Eye and Sensor Protection, Photonic Crystals, Optical Phase Conjugation, and Quantum Optics.
Dr. Swanson won the award for Best Research Project at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren VA, in 1998. She served on the Inter-Laboratory Independent Research panel for five years, evaluating and awarding basic research grants. She holds five patents. She is the author of over 30 scientific publications and two books on women in science.
Her award-winning research project, dealing with multiple scattering and optical extinction, led to a breakthrough in understanding light extinction in optically dense
media and the limits of applicability of the Beer-Lambert-Bouguer Law. Furthermore, this research resulted in a reliable method for optimizing scattering, based on particle size and material type, for applications such as cavityless lasing and localization.
More recently, Dr. Swanson was a Research Associate and part-time professor at Western Washington University for five years.
