Ruth Shaw’s research focuses on evolutionary processes in wild plant populations using quantitative genetics and population biology. With collaborators, she has addressed questions concerning effects of new mutations on plant fitness, the pace of evolutionary adaptation to changing climate, and evolutionary consequences of severe fragmentation of prairie. Current research is assessing the rate of adaptation of populations to ascertain whether adaptation will suffice, over the near term, to maintain populations. Shaw was raised with five siblings near Philadelphia PA. She graduated from Oberlin College, earning her B.A. in Biology, and then earned her Ph.D. in Botany and Genetics at Duke University. After a postdoc at University of Washington, she joined the faculty at University of California, Riverside and moved to the University of Minnesota in 1993. She has served as Editor in Chief of Evolution and President of the Society for the Study of Evolution.