Shaw is globally recognized for pioneering high-impact environmental research on ocean pollution, climate change, oil spills, and plastics that has fueled public policy over three decades.

[1][2] Shaw is credited as the first scientist to show that brominated flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

[5][6][7][8] Recognized as an outspoken voice on emerging contaminants like plastic,[9] Shaw traveled globally to raise awareness on toxic legacy of man-made chemicals and its impact on public health and the environment.

[21][22] Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this region-wide effort has produced a large body of data on a wide range of persistent organic pollutants, including flame retardants, in marine mammals and fish that has placed the region in a global perspective.

[24][25] In 2007, Shaw was credited as the first scientist to show that brominated flame retardant chemicals used in household and consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and fish in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

It presented a large body of scientific evidence of the negative health effects, including cancer, that are associated with exposure to halogenated flame retardants in consumer products.

[31] The paper had national policy implications, laying the groundwork for the San Antonio Statement, which cited the need for regulatory action on halogenated flame retardant chemicals worldwide.

[6][7][36][37] Shaw was appointed to the Strategic Sciences Working Group (SSWG), convened by the US Department of the Interior, to assess the consequences of the oil spill and make policy recommendations to federal agencies.

[38] In September 2010, she drafted a scientific memo titled “It’s Not About Dose” on behalf of the SSWG stating there is no safe level of exposure to cancer-causing hydrocarbons in oil.

[39] The memo warned that the use of Corexit dispersants, in combination with crude oil, would result in long-term damage to wildlife and human health in the Gulf region.

[51][52] In 2013, Shaw was lead investigator of a study that tested a group of firefighters in San Francisco[53] and found that their blood contains high levels of flame retardants and cancer-causing chemicals such as dioxins and furans, produced by the burning of flame-retarded household materials.

Shaw Institute scientists led a 2018 study on the uptake and expulsion of microplastic fibers by blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in the Gulf of Maine.