William Otis Crosby

William Otis Crosby (January 14, 1850, Decatur, Byrd Township, Brown County, Ohio - 31 December 1925, Boston) - American geologist and engineer, Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1906), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1881).

Biography
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1876), receiving a bachelor's degree.

Since 1875, while still a student, he was an assistant in geology and mineralogy in the Boston Society of Natural History, where he worked under the guidance of the famous paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt.

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was invited to the position of instructor at the same institute in the Department of Geology (1878-1883).

In 1881 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1883 he received the post of assistant and held this post until 1902. Then he worked as an assistant professor (1902-1906) and professor of mineralogy and lithology until 1907, when progressive deafness led him to the need for resignation.

Head of the Department of Geology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1906-1907). In total, 54 years have been associated with this institute.

After the termination of teaching activity and until the end of his life, he worked as an expert consultant on the construction of engineering structures. He died in Boston on December 31, 1925.

Scientific and engineering activities
Teaching at the Institute was combined with extensive scientific and engineering activities. The research covered such areas as mineralogy, igneous rocks, glaciology, physical geography, metamorphism, economic geology, fracture disturbance and tectonics, coral reefs, engineering geology and groundwater.

He gave one of the first classifications of fractured disturbance of rock massifs (1882).

He advised projects in the United States, Alaska, Mexico and Spain. Among them such as Catskill Aqueduct, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Arrowrock Dam, La Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua (Mexico) and others.

Awards, recognition
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1881)

Member of the Geological Society of America

Member of the Seismological Society of America

Member of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers

Member of the Boston Society of Natural History

Twice awarded by the Walker Award from the Boston Society of Natural History

Bronze medal of the Exposition Universelle (1900).

Personal life
Wife - Alice Ballard Crosby (since September 4, 1876), son of Irwin Ballard Crosby, geologist, scientist - continuer of the father's case.