Biography
Professor Swanson has had a career that has spanned several disciplines relating to policy, resources and governance. He has been members of both law faculties and economics departments in several countries, teaching and providing policy guidance on issues relating to resource management, technological change, institutional governance and regulation. Professor Swanson’s academic career commenced in London where he was first an assistant professor in law & economics at University College London, as well as a director of research for the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE). He departed UCL for Cambridge University in 1991 where he was located wholly within the economics department and focused on regulation and resource management. There he did much of his work on genetic resources, biotechnology and agricultural development. In 1998 he departed Cambridge University when elected to the Chair in Law & Economics at UCL, but remained a Research Fellow at Cambridge University and co-director of the Centre for Law & Economics for Environment and Development. At UCL much of the focus of his work was on international institutions and global development. In 2010 he moved to the André Hoffmann Chair at the Graduate Institute-Geneva, where he is also academic director of the Centre for International Environmental Studies. Here he focuses on sustainable development. He has advised widely on issues dealing with resource management, regulation and development, at the country level (esp. Asia and Africa) and for international institutions and agencies (UNEP, IFPRI, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, China Council on International Cooperation for Environment and Development, UNDP, WIPO).
