Alma Swan obtained a first class honours degree in zoology in 1974 and a PhD in cell biology in 1978 from Southampton University. After research fellowships funded by the Cancer Research Campaign at Southampton General Hospital and St. George's Hospital Medical School (London), she took a position as Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Leicester. Her research was in medical cell biology and she taught a range of courses from vertebrate biology to the biology of cancer. In 1985, she moved into science publishing as managing editor of a Pergamon Press (later Elsevier Science) biomedical research indexing service, published both in print and online. In 1996 she jointly founded Key Perspectives.
Though she has worked in the commercial sphere for 20 years, she retains links with academic life: for four years she was tutor and consultant for the Open University Business School’s MBA programme and since 1991 has been tutor for two business strategy courses on Warwick Business School’s MBA programme. She holds honorary roles as business mentor and teacher for the Institute for Entrepreneurship (part of the School of Management) at the University of Southampton, is a Visiting Researcher in the School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Associate Fellow in the Marketing and Strategic Management Group at Warwick Business School. Alma has an MBA from Warwick Business School, is a Member of the Institute of Biology and is an elected member of the Governing Board of Euroscience (the European Association for the Promotion of Science and Technology) and the editor of its online magazine, The Euroscientist.
Though she has worked in the commercial sphere for 20 years, she retains links with academic life: for four years she was tutor and consultant for the Open University Business School’s MBA programme and since 1991 has been tutor for two business strategy courses on Warwick Business School’s MBA programme. She holds honorary roles as business mentor and teacher for the Institute for Entrepreneurship (part of the School of Management) at the University of Southampton, is a Visiting Researcher in the School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Associate Fellow in the Marketing and Strategic Management Group at Warwick Business School. Alma has an MBA from Warwick Business School, is a Member of the Institute of Biology and is an elected member of the Governing Board of Euroscience (the European Association for the Promotion of Science and Technology) and the editor of its online magazine, The Euroscientist.