Alexander (Sandy) Grimwade was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1946 and educated at West Kilbride Primary School (1951 - 1958), Dollar Academy (1958-1964), and Edinburgh University (1964 - 1971).
Sandy spent 40 years involved with communicating science to scientists, students and the public.
After completing his Ph. D. in biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 1971, he worked for several years for Elsevier in Amsterdam (1971-75).
Subsequently, he was the Biology Editor of Nature in Washington DC (1975-78).
On returning to the UK in 1978, he became publisher of the Trends journals and founded several Trends titles. The Trends series is one of the most successful new science publishing programs of the past 25 years.
In 1985, he returned to the US to work at the Institute for Scientific Information, where he founded the ISI Atlas of Science, an innovative series of review journals based on in-depth analysis of activity in the research literature.
Subsequently, in 1989, he founded Keyboard Publishing, a new venture which created multimedia software for education and reference in medicine and science. Keyboard Publishing software was used for teaching basic science by over 80% of US medical schools and by many more overseas.
From 1998 to 2004, he was Publisher of The Scientist, a leading news magazine for life scientists, and was responsible for developments that have transformed the publication into a successful international print and web magazine with a reputation for quality and innovation.
From 2005 until his retirement in 2011 he ran a consultancy working with major companies, publishers, and entrepreneurs to help them create and develop their businesses.
He has been a contestant on Jeopardy (2004) and is a keen gardener and birdwatcher. In retirement, he is actively involved with science education in Philadelphia schools, and in environmental education at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.
Sandy married Linda Hassan in 1969 in Edinburgh. Linda and Sandy have 2 sons (Robert (1976) and Mark (1978)) and five grandchildren.