Richard F. Shaw, Ph.D.

Associate Dean, School of the Coast & Environment
Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
(225)578-3334 (Office)
(225)578-5328 (Facsimile)
(225)485-5419 (Cell)
e-mail   rshaw@lsu.edu

Dr. Richard Shaw is Associate Dean of the School of the Coast and Environment and a professor within the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University.  Dr. Shaw has also held a number of other administrative positions at LSU including Interim Dean and was the Director of LSU’s Coastal Fisheries Institute for over 18 years.  He has also served on a number of campus-wide committees (e.g., LSU Sustainability, LSU Energy and Environment Initiative, Graduate School Coordinating, Coastal Research Council, International Education, Faculty Senate, etc.).  Since joining LSU in 1981, Dr. Shaw has served as the University’s representative to the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, the National Research Council’s Assessment of Research Doctoral Programs, the U.S. Delegation to the International Convention on the Environment and Fisheries Sustainability of Cuba, Louisiana’s Coastal Sustainability Consortium (members – LSU, Tulane, UNO, ULL, and the Governor’s Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration), National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and LDWF Artificial  Reef Council.  He has also served as a panel member on EPA’s: STAR-Oceanographic Fellowship Program, Coastal Ocean Program, Coastal Fisheries Ecosystems, and Living Aquatic Subcommittee-Gulf of Mexico Resources.

Dr. Shaw served on the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission’s SEAMAP Plankton Workgroup for over 16 years.  Recently, he served as one of four members of LSU’s Oil Spill Steering Committee that oversaw the review and awarding of over $10 million in BP research funds that came to LSU soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Dr. Shaw received his Ph.D. in Oceanography at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in 1981.

He is a well-known fisheries oceanographer whose research interests have focused on ichthyoplankton taxonomy and ecology, and the growth, mortality, habitat requirements, and transport and recruitment mechanisms of larval and juvenile fish on the continental shelf and within estuaries, and fisheries and global climatic change.  He has published over 125 papers in refereed scientific journals, book chapters, and technical reports on the early life history stages of fishes. As a teaching professor, Dr. Shaw has developed several graduate-level courses and still teaches three classes, annually.

Dr. Shaw’s research has been funded by grants and contracts with NSF-EPSCOR, ONR, DOD-DEPSCOR, DOE, EPA, NOAA MARFIN, MMS, BOEMRE, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, NOAA-NMFS, LA Sea Grant, NOAA-NGI, and LDWF Wallop-Breaux Program.

He has been the Convener and/or session chair at a number of national and international meetings (e.g., American Fisheries Society Early Life History Symposium, Coastal Wetland Ecology and Management Symposium, International Larval Fish Conference) on such topics as distribution and transport of larval fishes, implications of global climatic change and essential fish habitat, fisheries recruitment processes in coastal wetland systems, life history, taxonomy and recruitment of reef fish larvae and juveniles, and global climatic change:  implications for coastal north-central Gulf of Mexico.

« Back to Board Roster