Shapiro was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish Lithuanian immigrant parents.

[1] A prolific author of texts in his field, his two-volume treatise, The Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow, published in 1953 and 1954, is considered a classic.

[4] He also founded the National Council for Fluid Mechanics Films (NCFMF), in cooperation with the Educational Development Center.

[5] From there, Shapiro was appointed Chair of the Institute's Faculty in 1964-1965 and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1965 to 1974.

The vortex was measured by a cross made of two silvers of wood pinned above the draining hole.