Captain Charles Wesley Shilling (September 21, 1901 – December 23, 1994) was an American physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine, research, and education.

[1] Shilling was widely recognized as an expert on deep sea diving, naval medicine, radiation biology, and submarine capabilities.

[1] Utilizing these techniques, they were able to rescue all 33 surviving crew members from the sunken submarine including future Rear Admiral Oliver F.

[2] Shilling later recalled that the untested submarine rescue procedures utilized with the Squalus incident "worked like a charm".

[1] Upon retirement from the Navy, Shilling served as deputy director, Division of Biology and Medicine at the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1955 to 1960.

[11] A major focus of this project was indexing and abstracting the world serial publications and ensuring their availability in the United States.

[12] Here, Shilling applied his knowledge in diving medicine and biological communications to establish the UMS scientific journal, Undersea Biomedical Research.

[1] The workshop was chaired by Dr. Jefferson Davis and the group eventually published the definitive text Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

[12] Following his retirement from the UHMS, Shilling took a two-year post as Distinguished scientist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

The UHMS Charles W. Shilling Library is the largest repository of diving and hyperbaric research and clinical information –current and historical–in the world.

[16] The collection consists of books, journals, reports, workshops, symposia, conference proceedings, and annotated bibliographies spanning the fields of diving, hyperbaric, and marine medicine.

The library has extensive reprint files of articles, cataloged by author, related to diving and hyperbaric medicine and dating back to the 1930s.

[17] Shilling's portrait, painted by Daniel Thompson of the Corcoran Gallery and School of Art, was dedicated October 23, 1994.