Richard Edwin Shope (December 25, 1901 – October 2, 1966) was an American virologist who, together with his mentor Paul A. Lewis at the Rockefeller Institute, identified influenzavirus A in pigs in 1931.

[1] Using Shope's technique, Smith, Andrewes, and Laidlaw of England's Medical Research Council cultured it from a human in 1933.

Shope and Lewis went on to identify a virus that also had links to influenza, putting into doubt the thesis that flu was caused by a bacterial infection.

[6] Shope continued his work at the Department of Animal Pathology at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in Princeton, New Jersey.

While studying swine flu on farms in Iowa Shope discovered that virus infections caused the mad itch, also known as pseudorabies, in cattle.