George
Swenson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1922. He attend
Stanford University and obtained his B.S in electrical engineering
from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology, his M.S from
M.I.T in 1948, and PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1951. Upon
completion of his PhD he took a position as an associate professor in
electrical engineering at Washington University, University of
Alaska, and Michigan State. In the early stages of his carrier he was
interested in acoustics, electromagnetic theory, and analog
computation.
In
1956, having developed an interest in radio astronomy and geophysics
he was appointed to a joint position in Astronomy and Electrical
Engineering at the University of Urbana Champaign. His chief
objective was to develop a radio astronomy research program and radio
telescope for the university. His work would result in the
construction of the Vermilion River Observatory located near
Danville, Illinois. The radio telescopes spanned 400ft to 120ft built
on land purchased by the university in 1959, the two telescopes
cataloged data interstellar data enabling scientists analysis the
molecular composition of interstellar gas.
Directions
to the site:
http://virtual.parkland.edu/hleuszler/PB36/vermillion_river_observatory_res.htm
Work
cited
Archival
Records:
George
Swenson papers (record series 11/6/21)
Photos
of Swenson and research (digitized and in Archon)
Alumni
and Faculty Biographical Morgue File (record series 26/4/1) on
Swenson
