An efficient synthesis of (−)-8-epi-swainsonine, starting from a commercially available 1-(R)-α-methylbenzylaziridine-2-methanol, was developed. The synthetic route utilizes stereocontrolled Sharpless asymmetricdihydroxylation governed by AD-mix-β followed by an aziridine ring opening-cyclization sequence to generate the five membered N-heterocyclic ring system present in the bicyclic target. A subsequent