In memoriam: Walter A. Shaw

Walter A. Shaw, namesake of the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator Award in Lipid Research and founder of Avanti Polar Lipids, died on Feb. 14, 2026, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was 86 years old. Shaw supported the Avanti Award in Lipids and was an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology member for over 25 years.

Walter A. Shaw

Born August 20, 1939, in Canton, Ohio, Shaw received a B.S. in chemistry from Harvard University, an M.S. in physiological chemistry from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In 1967, Shaw founded Avanti Polar Lipids and ran the company with his wife, Rowena. In the 1980s, as Avanti was steadily supplying research-grade lipids, Shaw developed pharmaceutical-grade dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine for an artificial lung surfactant that helps premature babies breathe, now known as Exosurf Neonatal. After this drug came to market in 1990 as the first Food and Drug Administration–approved synthetic lipid product, Avanti also landed in the pharmaceutical business. Since then, the company offers a wide range of lipids for both research and clinical use, including sterols and biologically active lipids.

The Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator Award in Lipid Research was established by the ASBMB Lipid Research Division in honor of Shaw. This award recognizes outstanding lipid researchers with no more than 10 years of experience since receiving a Ph.D. or M.D. The award consists of a plaque, a monetary award and travel expenses to present a lecture at the ASBMB annual meeting. As of 2026, 14 recipients have been honored.

Avanti also sponsors the ASBMB Avanti Award in Lipids, which recognizes outstanding research contributions in lipids. The award consists of a plaque, a monetary award and expenses to present a lecture at the ASBMB annual meeting. As of 2026, 30 recipients have been honored.

According to Daniel Raben, a professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University and ASBMB fellow, Shaw’s company consistently provided high-quality products, was committed to helping customers and became a lipid research staple. “Lipid researchers view the company as ‘more of a collaborator than a supplier,” Raben said.

“Without Avanti Polar Lipids, many of the advances in lipid biochemistry over the past four decades would not have progressed nearly as rapidly as they did,” ASBMB Lipid Research Division leader and professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine Fred Maxfield said.

“The Avanti booth at ASBMB meetings has always been a valuable source of information about how to work with lipids properly, and attendees often cluster around the booth for help with their problems with the handling or analysis of these compounds,” Alfred Merrill, chair in molecular cell biology at Georgia Institute of Technology who nominated Shaw to become an ASBMB fellow, said.

Shaw was also a co-investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health grants, including the 10-year glue grant for the LIPID Metabolites and Pathways Strategy Consortium.

“Walt’s contributions have been instrumental to the evolution of lipidomics,” Ed Dennis, who directs the Consortium, said. Other grants involved novel lipids for cancer chemotherapy and assessment of a mixed lipid matrix, LYM-X-SORB, for use in oral drug delivery. He also developed the lipid components of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

Shaw also supported other awards and organizations furthering lipid research worldwide.

“Walt’s impact on the scientific community extended far beyond his products; his generous sponsorship of global meetings and the ASBMB Avanti Award in Lipids — which I am deeply honored to have received — leaves a lasting legacy,” George Carman, a Rutgers University Board of Governors professor, founding director of the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research and colleague of Shaw’s, said. Carman is an ASBMB fellow and associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Lipid Research. He won the ASBMB Herbert Tabor Research Award and the ASBMB Avanti Award in Lipids.

In Merrill’s ASBMB fellow nomination letter, he mentioned that Shaw and his wife, Rowena, have long supported student learning and curricular innovations. They established the Walt and Rowena Shaw Collaborative Learning Center on the campus of Asbury University.

Shaw is survived by his wife, three children, seven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.