John serves as Director for Harvard Global Research and Support Services, Inc. as well as Vice Provost for Research, Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology, and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University.

As Director, John helps guide the activities of Harvard Global Research and Support Services, Inc. and its affiliate organizations. The Harvard Global Board of Directors convenes biannually to review critical activity and approve financial data, including budget-setting. Some directors also sit on the local Boards of Harvard Global’s affiliate entities.

In his role as Vice Provost for Research, John works to support the research enterprise of the University, including its 12 schools, 15 practicing hospitals, and roughly 30 initiatives, centers, and institutes that bring together faculty across campus and University partners. He helps to advance Harvard’s mission by enabling foundational and transformative research and developing core research support. In this role, John serves on Boards and various committees of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Ragon Institute, Landmark Bio, the Kempner Institute for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), and other programs that support life and physical science research and technology translation. His office also helps the University navigate the federal regulatory landscape for research funding received by Harvard (totaling nearly $1 billion annually) and associated compliance requirements.

John also serves as the Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology in the Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) Department, and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). He is a structural geologist and applied geophysicist who investigates the nature of faulting in the earth’s crust, with applications to earthquake science. His research is also focused on energy systems and carbon storage, and the environmental impacts of these activities. Shaw offers courses on these topics through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and SEAS.

John served as chair of the EPS Department for thirteen years, supporting faculty, affiliated scientists, students, and staff. Activities in this role included strategic planning, faculty hiring and evaluation; oversight of student academic programs; fiscal management and planning; research compliance; fundraising; alumni relations; diversity and inclusion initiatives; and oversight of lab renovations and building operations. John has served on several School- and University-level committees focused on professional conduct and research policy. He recently served as the Chair of the Board of the Southern California Earthquake Center, an international research organization involving more than 90 institutions with federal and private sector funding sources. He is also co-founder of Seismix Reservoir Management, LLC, a firm that helps to assess environmental hazards of energy-related operations for companies, regulatory groups, and others.