In thermodynamics, a thermodynamicist is one who studies thermodynamic processes and phenomena, i.e. the physics that deals with mechanical action and relations of heat. Among the well-known number of famous thermodynamicists, include Sadi Carnot, Rudolf Clausius, Willard Gibbs, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Max Planck.
History of term
Although most consider the French physicist Sadi Carnot to be the first true thermodynamicist, the term thermodynamics itself wasn’t coined until 1849 by Lord Kelvin in his publication An Account of Carnot's Theory of the Motive Power of Heat. The first thermodynamic textbook was written in 1859 by William Rankine, a civil and mechanical engineering professor at the University of Glasgow.
References
Thermodynamicist Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA