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Thomas R. Swift

American neurologist, researcher, and educator specializing in peripheral nervous system disorders

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ140463799
Source-derived summary

Thomas R. Swift is an American neurologist, researcher, and educator specializing in peripheral nervous system disorders. A professor emeritus and former neurology chairman at the Medical College of Georgia, Swift has held leadership roles in numerous neurological organizations. From 2005 to 2007, he served as president of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world's largest academic association for neurologists and neuroscientists, where he led national initiatives on embryonic stem cell research, stroke awareness, reimbursement reform, and political advocacy.

Early life and education

Raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, Swift attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School. He graduated from Trinity College (Connecticut) in 1961 and earned his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1965. In 1962, neurology resident Alec Reeves taught Swift neuroanatomy; Reeves's enthusiasm inspired Swift to pursue neurology. He later completed a medical internship at Cornell (2nd) Division, Bellevue Hospital, medical internship at University of Washington Medical Center, neurology residency at Cornell University Medical College, and residency training at Louisiana State University. Swift trained under physicians Jerome Posner and his mentor, Fred Plum. He then completed a clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester.

Academic and medical career

He began his clinical career with two years in the United States Public Health Service at Carville's National Leprosarium Hospital, where he treated leprosy patients and published research as Assistant Chief of the Rehabilitation Branch.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Thomas R. Swift” is american neurologist, researcher, and educator specializing in peripheral nervous system disorders. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Thomas, Swift and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2007, 1961, 1965—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Thomas, Swift and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american neurologist, researcher, and educator specializing in peripheral nervous system disorders” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q140463799. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2007, 1961 and 1965.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas R. Swift”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas R. Swift primary sources, Thomas R. Swift archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas R. Swift”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Thomas R. Swift” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.