death_date work_institution birth_name ethnicity field birth_date known_for prizes article_title citizenship alma_mater
18 november 2012 university of chicago don r. swanson european american physics , bioinformatics 10 october 1924 literature-based discovery asist award of merit -lrb- 2000 -rrb- don r. swanson
 american university of california , berkeley
don r. swanson

don r. swanson -lrb- october 10 , 1924 - november 18 , 2012 -rrb- was an american information scientist , most known for his work in literature-based discovery in the biomedical domain .
his particular method has been used as a model for further work , and is often referred to as swanson linking .
he was an investigator in the arrowsmith system project , which seeks to determine meaningful links between medline articles to identify previously undiscovered public knowledge .
he had been professor emeritus of the university of chicago since 1996 , and remained active in a post-retirement appointment until his health began to decline in 2009 .
swanson received his b.s. in physics at caltech , pasadena , california in 1945 , followed by an m.a at rice institute , houston , texas , two years later , and then a phd in theoretical physics from the university of california at berkeley in 1952 .
he worked as a physicist at various laboratories until 1963 , when he was made a professor and served as dean of the graduate school of library science at the university of chicago until 1972 and again from 1977 -- 79 and 1987-89 .
in 2000 , he was awarded the asist award of merit , the highest honor of the society , for his `` lifetime achievements in research and scholarship . ''
