Shields Warren (1898 - July, 1980) was a pioneer pathologist and expert in medical radiation. Dr. Warren's restless intellectual curiosity brought him international recognition for his contributions to the pathology of endocrine diseases,as well as for his study of the biologic effects of ionizing radiation.
Long concerned about the medical benefits and hazards of radiation, Dr. Warren made the first systematic examination of radioactive fallout, and as a Navy officer aided and studied the surviving victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Convinced that atomic energy could be made to serve rather than destroy humanity, he worked to identify and control the dangers of radiation. As a pathologist, he searched for ways to apply the products of atomic energy to diagnosis and therapy,most notably by his use of radioisotopes, which virtually revolutionized earlier techniques. His scientific achievements brought him numerous prestigious awards, including the American Cancer Society National Award for 1968, the Enrico Fermi Award,and the Albert Einstein Medal and Award.
His forward leadership extended to many years of distinguished government service with the Atomic Energy Commission,Department of Defense, National Academy
of Sciences, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Veterans'Administration.
Born in 1898 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Warren was graduated from Boston University, where his grandfather had been the first president and his father
had been dean of the college of liberal arts. After graduation from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Warren worked in diabetes research, writing the first of his nine text books, before turning his attention to cancer research.
At the time of his death, he was actively involved in radiation research in the laboratory bearing his name at the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston,
where he had worked for more than 50 years, including 36 yeas as the laboratory's chief pathologist. That laboratory is but one of three buildings named in his honor. The others are at Boston University and at Mallinckrodt, Inc., a chemical company in St. Louis, Missouri, of which he had been a member of the board of directors since 1956.