In 2011, the International Society of Anaesthetic Pharmacology gave him their lifetime achievement award.
Shafer left Stanford in 2007 to go to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as a professor of anesthesiology.
In addition, he is adjunct associate professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
[3] Shafer was a co-founder of PharmacoFore, which subsequently changed its name to Signature Therapeutics.
[2] Shafer appeared as an expert witness in the Michael Jackson manslaughter trial.