 When the Royal Society of Canada was created he was the first to occupy the presidential chair, and he also acted as president of the British Association at its meeting at Birmingham in 1886, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882, and president of the Geological Society of America in 1893.Sir William Dawson's name is especially associated with "Eozoon canadense", which in 1865 he described as an organism having the structure of a foraminifer.It was found in the Laurentian rocks, regarded as the oldest known geological system.