His research is at the interface of chemistry and materials science, with specific interests in carbon nanomaterials, polymers, and liquid crystals.

He introduced the concepts of charge and energy transport through molecular and nanowires as a method to create amplified signals to chemical events.

[7] He is also the cofounder of PolyJoule Inc.[8] that produces organic batteries for stationary energy storage, and founded Xibus Systems[9] that is developing improved methods for pathogenic bacteria detection in food production.

Swager also has pioneering contributions to the areas of liquid crystals demonstrating how novel molecular shapes can be used to introduce intermolecular correlations in structures and alignment.

[12][13][14][15] Also he has designed novel radical materials in collaboration with Robert G. Griffin (MIT) for dynamic nuclear polarization to enhance the signal to noise ratio in NMR experiments.