William Barton Rogers (December 7, 1804 – May 30, 1882) was an American geologist, physicist, and the founder and first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A proponent of practical observation and scientific reasoning, Rogers saw that a university for the "useful arts" could be essential in an age of industrial progress.

Ill health caused him to step away from his duties in 1868, although he stayed active in forming the Institute's curriculum, fundraising, and efforts at coeducation.

Patrick Rogers was born in Newtownstewart,[2] County Tyrone, Ireland and had immigrated at the end of the 18th century to America, where he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and practiced medicine.

During this time, he carried on investigations on dew and on the voltaic battery, and prepared a series of papers on the greensand and calcareous marl minerals of eastern Virginia and their value as fertilizers.

[4] In 1833, his brother Henry had returned from England filled with enthusiasm for geology, and this had prompted Rogers to begin studies in the field.

Together, the brothers published a paper on "The Laws of Structure of the more Disturbed Zones of the Earth's Crust", in which the wave theory of mountain chains was first announced.

These pioneering works contributed to a better understanding of the vast coal beds underlying some parts of the Appalachian region, and helped pave the way for the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

Meanwhile, Rogers had published six "Reports of the Geological Survey of the State of Virginia" (Richmond, 1836–40), though there were few copies, and recognition of their significance was slow to develop.

[11] While he was chair of the department of philosophy at UVA, he vigorously defended to the Virginia State Legislature the university's refusal to award honorary degrees, a policy which continues today.

All his life he had borne himself most faithfully and heroically, and he died as so good a knight would surely have wished, in harness, at his post, and in the very part and act of public duty.

[15] Rogers was chairman of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists (AAGN; organized 1840) in 1845 and again in 1847, and contributed important memoirs to its Transactions, including observations on the temperature of coal mines in eastern Virginia.