Swordy was born in
Birmingham in 1954. He studied under
Peter Fowler at the
University of Bristol, and graduated in 1978. Swordy moved to the United States in 1979 and accepted a research associate position at the
Enrico Fermi Institute. In 1986, he began teaching at the
University of Chicago. Swordy became a full professor in 1997. Between 2000 and 2003, Swordy was Master of the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division and associate dean of the physical sciences. In 2001, he was elected a fellow of the
American Physical Society, "[f]or innovative measurements with detectors on the ground, on balloons, and in space that significantly advanced the understanding of the sources and galactic propagation of cosmic rays at high energies." In 2007, he returned to the Enrico Fermi Institute as director. ==Personal life==