Emeritus Prof. Ian Shaw

Ian Shaw is Professor of Toxicology at the University of Canterbury. Professor Shaw is an international expert on the impact of environmental contaminants on human health, particularly in a food safety context and is a passionate communicator of science.

He has had over 40 years’ experience in academia, industry and government, both in the UK and New Zealand, which includes chairing the UK government’s Pesticide Residues Committee and working as the National Food Safety Programme Manager at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in New Zealand. He has been a member of many government advisory committees including (in New Zealand) the Royal Society of NZ’s health impacts of climate change advisory group, The Ministry of Health’s fortification of food with folate panel, and the NZ Police’s and NZ Transport Agency’s setting statutory limits for drug driving offences advisory group.

He has written 6 books and published 170 scientific papers on all aspects of toxicology. He won the NZ Association of Scientists’ Science Communicator’s Award in 2009 and was awarded a DSc by the University of Bath for his international work in toxicology and food safety in 2019; but his greatest joy is being awarded Science Lecturer of the Year by the University of Canterbury Students’ Association in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Ian will presenting at The Afterlife of Plastics: Environment and Human Health Impacts on Te Taiao Day and joining the Evening Kōrero: The Age of Complexity panel at the Better Business Day at Wao Summit 2026.