The emergence of a lightweight bullet-resistant vest, which is estimated to have saved the lives of more than 3,000 US police officers, owed much to the determination and persistence of Lester Shubin.

As a scientist in the R&D arm of the US Justice Department, Shubin championed a carbon-based liquid polymer called Kevlar that could be woven into nylon to create a fabric vest resistant to bullets at close range.

The material had been developed in the mid-Sixties by the US chemical giant DuPont by manipulating strings of carbon-based molecules to create a material that the company claimed was “stronger than steel but lighter than nylon”.

Shubin begged $5 million in Federal funding in the early Seventies and developed an exhaustive research programme working closely with the US army scientist Nicholas Montanarelli from an army laboratory in Maryland.

One of his first tests was to wrap layers of Kevlar around a phonebook and then fire a bullet from .38 handgun at close range. The bullet did not penetrate the thin yellow fabric.

Closer scientific analysis showed that the bullet actually deformed on impact thus spreading the energy horizontally. The wearer of such a garment would usually come away with no more than bruises or broken bones. The vest was proved to be 80 to 85 per cent effective against handguns at close range though not against rifles or shotguns.

Among the testing substitutes for the torso of a US police officer was a herd of unsuspecting goats. Each anaesthetised goat was wrapped in Kevlar and took a bullet for its country at various distances with the shots targeted at the heart, lungs, spine and liver. One goat died while the rest sustained non-life threatening injuries. Shubin later showed greater consideration for the animal kingdom by helping to develop bullet-resistant armour for police dogs.

A test pool of 500 police officers was using the vest, which could be concealed under the uniform, but to persuade manufacturers to make the vest he developed specifications, approved by the National Bureau of Standards, against which manufacturers could certify the product and ensure against litigation in the event of equipment failure.

Bullet-resistant clothing, comprising cloth flak jackets with metal inserts, were used in the Second World War. Steel-reinforced nylon jackets evolved through use in the Korean and Vietnam wars but were unpopular with police officers and soldiers alike because they were felt to be too heavy and bulky thus reducing manoeuvrability.

The lightweight Kevlar vest eventually achieved a limited distribution to 5,000 police officers in 15 US cities but it was not until a highly publicised incident in 1975 that the vests became used widely. A police officer in Seattle who was wearing the vest survived with only bruising after being hit twice in the chest by 38-calibre bullets fired at close range when intercepting a robbery on a grocery store.

The market-leading American Body Armor launched a Kevlar vest in 1975 incorporating steel plates positioned around the heart. Second Chance Body Armor launched an all-Kevlar vest in 1976.

Even then the vest did not become standard issue at all US police departments and some officers had to rely on their anxious spouses to buy the vest for them. Some police wives testified later that it was the best few hundred dollars they had ever spent. Shubin was honoured in 2006 by the Kevlar Survivors’ Club for having saved the lives of an estimated 3,000 police officers from shootings and stabbings.

Lester Shubin was born in Philadelphia in 1925. After graduating from Gratz High School in 1944 he served in the US Army as it advanced towards Berlin through France and Germany. He was among the liberators of the concentration camp of Dachau in Germany.

After the war he studied chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and took a master’s in chemistry at Drexel University, Philadelphia.

He worked as a chemist in Philadelphia for companies such as Melpar Inc where he helped to develop a quarantine container for astronauts returning from the Moon by converting aluminium airstream trailers.

He was appointed National Programme Manager of the US National Institute of Justice in 1971 and assigned to a cross-departmental project to find new ways of protecting President Nixon from assassination, from which started his Kevlar vest project.

Another little-used law enforcement practice that Shubin successfully advocated was the use of dogs to sniff out explosives and narcotic drugs. His claims were borne out by a series of incidents that included a dog finding a bomb on an American Airlines flight in New York in 1972.

Shubin is survived by his wife, a son and two grandchildren.

Lester Shubin, scientist, was born on September 27, 1925. He died on November 20, 2009, aged 84