SHAPIRO, ASCHER HERMAN

SHAPIRO, ASCHER HERMAN (1916–2004), U.S. mechanical engineer. Born in Brooklyn, Shapiro taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became professor of engineering (1962), head of the department of mechanical engineering (1965), and an Institute Professor (1975). He was associated with the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He did research on the aerodynamics of high-speed flight and turbomachinery, on propulsion systems, and on biofluid dynamics of the cardiovascular, pulmonary, and urinary systems. He took out patents on fluid-metering apparatuses, combustion chambers, propulsion systems, turbomolecular vacuum pumps, and industrial centrifuges. Shapiro wrote Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow (2 vols., 1953–54) and Shape and Flow; the Fluid Dynamics of Drag (1961). (Samuel Aaron Miller)