George Shaw

George Wenham Shaw (usually published as "G.W. Shaw") (28 April 1928, in Stalybridge, Cheshire – 27 November 2006, in Grantchester) was a biologist and leading British expert on academic dress. He designed the academic robes for the University of Bath UK, Trent University, Ontario and Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela. Shaw was also a patron of the Burgon Society, who are responsible for publishing a third, posthumous, edition of Shaw's Academical Dress. Biography After studying at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, George Shaw worked for a chemical company for two years, during which time he studied part-time at UMIST. In 1946, his interests having shifted from chemistry to biology, he began full-time undergraduate studies at the University of Wales, initially at Swansea before transferring to Bangor. Upon graduation, in 1950, he took up a teaching post at Deacon's School, Peterborough, and over the next three years he pursued research in cytogenetics in his spare time with assistance from colleagues at Cambridge. He submitted a dissertation based on this work to the University of Wales in 1953, and was awarded the degree of MSc by research. In 1956 he entered Wadham College, Oxford as a postgraduate research student in the Department of Botany, obtaining the degree of DPhil in 1958. After leaving Oxford he took a teaching post at Lancing College, where he remained for the rest of his career. He and his wife Mary, who had been a fellow postgraduate researcher at Oxford, married in 1958 and subsequently had two sons and two daughters.