Executive Leadership & Expert Bios

Michael Shaw, PhD

Associate Director of Laboratory Science, Influenza Division, NCIRD

Michael Shaw, Ph.D., serves as the Associate Director of Laboratory Science for the CDC’s Influenza Division. Dr. Shaw received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Birmingham-Southern College in 1974. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in molecular cell biology in 1980.

Dr. Shaw began his work in influenza during his postdoctoral training in virology at the Rockefeller University in New York and later became a faculty member. Dr. Shaw began working at CDC in the mid-1980s as a visiting scientist, and later worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. In 1993, Dr. Shaw started working in the Influenza Branch (which later became the Influenza Division) at CDC. He has served as Associate Director for Laboratory Science since January 2006.

In his current role, Dr. Shaw oversees influenza laboratory efforts at CDC for influenza diagnostics, surveillance, antiviral resistance, immunology, molecular genetics and vaccine strain selection. He serves as an advisor for public health policy and pandemic response and laboratory support to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Biomedical and Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the WHO. Dr. Shaw also advises domestic and international influenza laboratory response networks for the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network as representative of the CDC WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza.

Dr. Shaw has authored and co-authored more than 60 scientific papers and book chapters.