Charles Edwin Drew (15 December 1916 – 31 May 1987) was a cardiothoracic surgeon best known for assisting Sir Clement Price Thomas in King George VI's pneumonectomy in 1951. He went on to conduct pioneering research on profound hypothermia in cardiac surgery and what came to be known as the 'Drew technique'. Drew died from throat cancer at the age of 70 in 1987, leaving his wife Maureen and two children.