caption doctoral_advisor death_date death_place birth_place nationality workplaces field birth_date known_for prizes image article_title name alma_mater
charles richard drew john beattie 01 april 1950 burlington , north carolina , u.s. washington , d.c. , u.s. american freedman howard university 's hospital morgan state university montreal general hospital general surgery 03 june 1904 blood banking , blood transfusions spingarn medal charles r drew portrait.jpg charles r. drew
 charles richard drew amherst college , mcgill university , columbia university
charles r. drew

charles richard drew -lrb- june 3 , 1904 -- april 1 , 1950 -rrb- was an american physician , surgeon , and medical researcher .
he researched in the field of blood transfusions , developing improved techniques for blood storage , and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in world war ii .
this allowed medics to save thousands of lives of the allied forces .
the research and development aspect of his blood storage work is disputed .
as the most prominent african-american in the field , drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood , as it lacked scientific foundation , and resigned his position with american red cross , which maintained the policy until 1950 .
