UW-Stevens Point professor receives American Water Resources Association award

The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) has given its first Distinguished Service Award to Byron Shaw, professor of soil and water resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Shaw was recognized by the AWRA’s Wisconsin Section at the annual conference in Green Bay.

The award recognizes individuals or groups who have made exceptional contributions to enhance the quality of water resources in Wisconsin. Nominees must be a past or present member of AWRA and have demonstrated either a single or lifetime contribution toward the enhancement of Wisconsin’s water resources.

"Your contributions over the years in education, outreach, public service and research have had major benefits to water resource protection in the state," said AWRA president, Tim Asplund. "Even though you are retiring soon, your mark will continue to be made through the students you have trained and the many colleagues with whom you have interacted."

Shaw’s award was for a lifetime of work including his contributions in the classroom, the research laboratory, and his outreach and public education work on water resources policy both in Wisconsin and the nation. He was among the first in Wisconsin to show that pesticides were getting into the groundwater. This led to the nation’s first comprehensive legislation of its kind with the passage of Wisconsin’s 1984 groundwater law.

Shaw first joined the UWSP faculty in 1968 and has been the director of UWSP’s Environmental Task Force program since 1973. In addition, he was the first director of the UW-Extension Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center at the university.

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