M. Shimkin; Early Cancer Researcher

Michael Shimkin, a Siberian-born researcher who began studying the link between smoking and lung cancer more than 50 years ago, has died. He was 76.

Shimkin, a professor emeritus at UC San Diego, died of a stroke Monday at the medical center there, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Shimkin was one of the first researchers to explore the causes of cancer, beginning his work in the 1930s. Among his achievements were studies in the 1950s that were among the first to connect smoking and lung cancer.

“He tried to emphasize the importance of major factors such as smoking, drinking and diet over concerns about trace chemicals linked to cancer,” said Dr. Cedric Garland, an epidemiologist at UCSD.

Shimkin was born in Siberia in 1912 but emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in San Francisco with his family. Educated at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco in the 1930s, Shimkin devoted his career to cancer research.

“He covered a great deal of territory in his career, including clinical, experimental and epidemiological investigations,” said Dr. Joseph Fraumeni, director of the epidemiology and biostatistics program at the National Cancer Institute, where Shimkin worked until 1963.

Shimkin’s books, “Science and Cancer” and “Contrary to Nature,” are considered classics in the cancer research field, UCSD officials said.