The University of Wyoming International Board of Advisers has selected Scott Shaw, professor of entomology in the Department of Renewable Resources, as the fourth winner of the UW Award for Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Internationalization.
The annual award is intended for a faculty member with a solid, long-term record in diverse activities that promote international education at UW.
Shaw, who joined the UW faculty in 1989, is considered one of the leading world authorities regarding the diverse and economically important braconid parasitic wasps used as biocontrol agents. His work has led to significant taxonomic advances that have improved the environmental and economic considerations of pest management. He has co-written papers with colleagues at 13 different international scientific institutions on four continents, and has discovered and described more than 95 new insect species from 23 countries and five continents.
He has collaborated on biological control research involving beneficial insects that attack several agricultural pests in North, South and Central America, Europe and New Zealand.
“If applied biological control programs using these beneficial organisms are successful, the resulting savings to world agriculture could be measured in millions of dollars annually,” Shaw says.
He also has been influential in establishing a meaningful international component in UW’s curricula. Shaw has recruited and mentored international graduate students from Costa Rica, Pakistan and the Netherlands, arranged for eight UW students to study and conduct field projects in the rain forests of Costa Rica, and has been a collaborating scientist with the National Biodiversity Institute in Costa Rica.
He has hosted many international scientists visiting the University of Wyoming. Shaw has arranged for many of these international visitors to give seminars and guest lectures in classes, fostering the international perspectives of students.
“He has recruited several extremely productive international superstars into his graduate program,” wrote Thomas Thurow, professor and head of the Department of Renewable Resources. “He has enhanced internationalization of the UW curriculum by designing and teaching Tropical Ecology and co-designing/teaching the Biodiversity Crisis courses.”
University students aren’t the only beneficiaries of Shaw’s international involvement. He established the Insect Gallery at UW’s College of Agriculture, showing live and preserved insects from around the world. The gallery has served as an entertaining yet educational tool, capturing the imagination of the thousands of pre-school and grade school students who visit the gallery each year.
Shaw received his B.S. degree (1977) at Michigan State University, and earned M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1984) degrees at the University of Maryland, all in entomology. Shaw worked at Harvard University from 1984-1989 as a curatorial associate. He has contributed more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous teaching and research awards, including the Entomology Society of America’s President’s Prize and a U.S.D.A. certificate of merit for superior service.
Lewis Bagby, director of UW’s International Programs Office, notes that the UW International Board of Advisers was established in 1999 in order to advance internationalization at the university and in the state. It consists of 13 members from all regions of the state. They represent the fields of the private sector, military science, state government, public education, and the diplomatic corps.
Scott Shaw