Edward Williams Morley (January 29, 1838 - February 24 1923) was an American scientist.
From 1869 to 1906 he was professor of chemistry at Western Reserve College (today Case Western Reserve University). His best remembered work, which he did together with Albert Abraham Michelson was the Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887. Neither he nor Michelson ever considered that it disproved the aether hypothesis. However, others did, and it ultimately led to Einstein's theory of relativity. Morley also worked with Dayton Miller on positive aether experiments after his work with Michelson.