Marie Morisawa

Who is Marie Morisawa?

Marie Morisawa was an American geomorphologist. Morisawa was an integral part of the revolution in the field that began in the 1950s. She studied the geomorphology of rivers, active fault zones, plate tectonics, coastal geomorphology, geological hazards, and environmental geomorphology.

Morisawa was born on November 2, 1919 in Toledo, Ohio. She earned a B.S. in mathematics from Hunter College in 1941. She then earned an M.A. in theology before turning to geology and obtaining an M.S. from University of Wyoming in 1952. She taught at Bryn Mawr College from 1955 to 1959. In 1960 she earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Arthur Newell Strahler was the advisor for her doctoral work on the quantitative geomorphology of Pennsylvania streams.

Morisawa wrote eight books, including Evaluating Riverscapes in 1971. She founded the journal Geomorphology in 1986 and was its editor in chief. She became "the first female chair" of the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division of the Geological Society of America and helped found "the annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposia."

Morisawa died in a car accident on June 10, 1994.