Edward Salisbury Dana was born on November 16, 1849, in New Haven, Connecticut.

He was an American mineralogist and physicist. He made important contributions to the study of minerals, especially in the field of crystallography. In 1870, he graduated from Yale College and spent another two years studying in Heidelberg and Vienna, specializing in crystal optics and crystallography. He then returned to Yale to take his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1879, he was appointed assistant professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at Yale and later became professor of physics. His research and publishing were mainly in the field of mineralogy. In 1875, Dana became an editor of the American Journal of Science and continued to direct it until 1926. In 1884, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1885, he was made a trustee of the Peabody Museum of Yale. He was an elected member of scientific societies in Austria, Mexico, Russia, England, Scotland, and across the United States. His two most important publications were his “Textbook of Mineralogy” (1877) and the monumental sixth edition of his father's “System of Mineralogy” (1892).

In 1883, he married Caroline Bristol (1857-1916). He died on June 16, 1935, in New Haven, Connecticut.