Education
Swank graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1961. Under the supervision of Steve Frautschi, she was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy in physics in 1967.
Swank graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1961. Under the supervision of Steve Frautschi, she was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy in physics in 1967.
Two of her physics professors at Bryn Mawr were alumni of Caltech. They influenced her decision to attend graduate school at the California Institute of Technology. Her thesis was "Radiative Corrections to Neutrino-Electron Interactions".
Swank taught physics as an assistant professor at California State University at Los Angeles from 1966 to 1969.
There she met Hakkı Boran Ögelman, a high-energy astrophysics researcher and head of the physics department at that time who had been involved in the gamma-ray astronomy group at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Through him, Swank learned of experiments under development for the eighth Orbiting Solar Observatory to be launched in 1975.
After she returned to the United States, Swank applied for and received a postdoctoral fellowship at Goddard. Swank was first associated with National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a Resident Research Associate for the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences, USA/National Research Council) in the X-ray Astrophysics Branch located in the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Swank was the principal Investigator for the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) and project scientist for the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) project launched in December 1995.
Swank was appointed principal Investigator for National Aeronautics and Space Administration"s Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS) project The GEMS mission was canceled in 2012 due to projected costs 20 to 30 percent over budget. Throughout her career at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Swank focused her research on observing and analyzing X-ray emissions from black holes and neutron stars.
She was elected a fellow in the American Physical Society in 1993.
She wrote or co-authored over 300 scientific papers published in scientific journals or by National Aeronautics and Space Administration during her career. Swank retired in 2013.
The Goddard Space Flight Center lists her as an emeritus scientist in her biographical sketch.
In 1999 Swank was awarded the Bruno Rossi Prize along with Hale Bradt "for their key roles in the development of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, and for the resulting important discoveries related to high time resolution observations of compact astrophysical objects." In June 2013, Swank was awarded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Distinguished Service Meda
