Sir William Edmond Logan (1798-1875) was a Canadian geologist who founded the Geological Survey of Canada and contributed many fruitful new ideas to the science of geology.

William E. Logan was born on April 20, 1798, in Montreal, where his father, a Scottish immigrant, was a prosperous businessman. William attended high school in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then entered the University of Edinburgh. After a year he left for London to join his uncle in business for the next 10 years. These were the years of highly touted processes for extracting previously unrecognized metals from slag heaps and mine tips. When everyone else was plunging however, Logan was cautious and avoided the grave losses which ensued in many of these fly-by-night enterprises.

In 1831 Logan's uncle decided that the family copper works near Swansea in Wales required the full time of a trustworthy person, and Logan immersed himself in the subjects of copper...