Biographical Note

Geoffrey Shaw of Australia Appointed New Representative

 

of IAEA Director General to United Nations

 

VIENNA, 4 February (IAEA) -- The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that Geoffrey Shaw (Australia) has been appointed Representative of the Director General to the United Nations and Director of the IAEA Office at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  Mr. Shaw will take up his duties on 8 February.

Having joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1994, Mr. Shaw served in various positions, including, most recently, Assistant Secretary of the Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office.  He is an Alternate Governor for Australia on the IAEA Board of Governors, and has served as a delegate to the IAEA General Conference.

Mr. Shaw has also represented his country, both bilaterally and at international conferences and meetings, on issues related to disarmament, non-proliferation, nuclear safeguards and nuclear security.  From 2004 to 2007, the Australian Government seconded him to serve in Vienna as Special Assistant for Policy to the Director General of the IAEA.

Between 2001 to 2004, he served as Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.  During that period, he chaired the Western Group under the Biological Weapons Convention, and was a senior delegate of Australia at multilateral meetings, including the General Assembly’s First Committee (Disarmament and International Security); preparatory committee meetings for the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); the Mine Ban Treaty; the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons; the Missile Control Technology Regime; and the Hague Code of Conduct.

Prior to taking up his appointment in Geneva, Mr. Shaw served as the Director responsible for implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Australia.  He also worked on issues relating to the Australia Group, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the proposed Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.

Born in Australia, Mr. Shaw completed a doctorate in chemistry at the Australian National University in 1990, after graduating early from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Science with honours.  He worked as a Research Fellow at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Science, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, prior to returning home to join the public service in 1992.

Mr. Shaw is married and has two children.

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