William Morris Davis

William Morris Davis (1850–1934) was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist and meteorologist. He was the one of the earliest American geographers. He graduated from Harvard University in 1869. He also served as a professor at Harvard University, president of the Geological Society of America, professor at California Polytechnic Institute and visiting professor at the University of Berlin, Germany. He applied the genesis viewpoint to explain the formation and development of geomorphology and developed the geographic cycle theory and three stages of river development from youth, maturity to old age, which was called Davisian cycle of erosion theory. His published works include ‘Elementary Meteorology’, ‘Geographical Essays’, ‘The Coral-Reef Problem’, ‘Physical Geography’, ‘Interpretation and Description of Geomorphology’, and ‘Principles of Modern Physical Geography’.