Member Bio - John A. Swanson

John A. Swanson is the founder of ANSYS, served as president for more than

20 years, and was its chief technologist until his retirement in 1999. Swanson

is internationally recognized as an authority and innovator in the development

and application of finite-element methods to engineering. He founded

Swanson Analysis Systems (now ANSYS) in 1970 to develop, support, and

market the ANSYS program, a finite-element software code widely used in the

computer-aided engineering industry. Prior to that, Swanson was employed

at Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory. In 2009, he was elected a member

of the National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the John Fritz

Medal in 2004. He is a Board of Trustees Member Emeritus of the University

of Pittsburgh, and served 12 years on the Board of Trustees of Washington and

Jefferson College. He is currently active in Renewable Energy, with a focus on

PV Solar Power. He does public lectures at Universities and community gatherings,

as well as consulting on residential and commercial PV design.