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. Shown here is a list of famous thermodynamicists. Thermodynamics (from the Greek thermos meaning heat and dynamics meaning power) is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on physical systems at the macroscopic scale by analyzing the collective motion of their particles using statistics. ...

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.^[1] The first thermodynamic textbook was written in 1859 by William Rankine, a civil and mechanical engineering professor at the University of Glasgow.^[2] Sadi Carnot Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (June 1, 1796 - August 24, 1832) was a French mathematician and engineer who gave the first successful theoretical account of heat engines, the Carnot cycle, and laid the foundations of the second law of thermodynamics. ... William Thomson, Archbishop of York, has the same name as this man. ... 1859 (MDCCCLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar). ... William John Macquorn Rankine (July 2, 1820 - December 24, 1872) was a Scottish engineer and physicist. ... The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451, in Glasgow, Scotland. ...

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