Charles Edward Munroe (24 May 1849 - 1938) was a U.S. chemist, and discoverer of the Munroe effect.

He was born in Cambridge, Massachusett and studied at the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard, graduating in 1871. He then took a job as a chemist at the university, until 1874 when he moved to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.

It 1886 he joined the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island as a chemist, where he discovered the Munroe effect, the basis for shaped charge explosives. In 1892 he became head of the Department of Chemistry at the Columbian University (renamed George Washington University in 1904), where he remained until 1919. In 1919 he became Dean Emeritus of the School of Graduate Studies and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, roles which he kept until he died. He wrote over 100 books on explosives and chemistry, and was appointed in 1900 by the Swedish Academy of Science to nominate the candidate for the Nobel Prize in chemistry. He also served as president of the American Chemical Society and served as a consultant to the United States Geological Survey and the United States Bureau of Mines.