Murray Shear was an American scientist who worked on cancer research and was a pioneer in the field of Chemotherapy.
While attending the City College of New York for his bachelor's degree (Chemistry, 1922), he became interested in chemical physics research.
By 1926, Shear had become an administrative officer at the hospital, and in 1931, he held the concurrent position of instructor in pediatrics at the Long Island Medical School.
In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act establishing the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
During the 1940s, Shear was instrumental in setting up a program to screen chemicals for their effects on cancer cells growing in culture dishes.
During World War II, Shear was considered to have played an important role in the development of a vaccine for typhus, which at one time was a killer disease among soldiers subjected to the unsanitary conditions of Trench warfare.