Overview video (3:24) on human thermodynamics pioneers by American chemical engineer Libb Thims (29 Jan 2009).

In human thermodynamics, HT pioneers or "human thermodynamics pioneers" are those (255+) scientists and writers, as listed below, who over the last two-hundred years have contributed theory and logic to the understanding of the thermodynamics of human existence.

“The fascination of a growing science lies in the work of the pioneers at the very borderland of the unknown, but to reach this frontier one must pass over well traveled roads; of these one of the safest and surest is the broad highway of thermodynamics.”

Gilbert Lewis and Merle Randall (1923) [1]

Significant among HT pioneers are French physicist Gustave-Adolphe Hirn, to which the first use of the term “human thermo-dynamics” is attributed (1893), Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, who in the 1910s incorporated the conservation of force into a theory of subconscious drives, restraints, and impulses, etc., and English physicist C.G. Darwin, the grandson of Charles Darwin, who in 1952 clearly defined the science of "human thermodynamics" to be the thermodynamic study of systems of “human molecules” (people). Two HT pioneers, Johann Goethe (1809) and William Sidis (1920), are included in the list of people with a 200+ IQ, eight HT pioneers, Wilhelm Ostwald (1909), Frederick Soddy (1921), Charles Sherrington (1932), Erwin Schrödinger (1933), Bertrand Russell (1950), Paul Samuelson (1970), Ilya Prigogine (1977), John Avery (1995), are Nobel Laureates, and one, Thomas Pynchon (1960), is currently a significant Laureate contender. The following lists, to note, are not all-inclusive, as many pioneers remain lost or hidden in the various obscure books of history.

Johann Goethe (1809) explained human life, love, passion, and work via affinity reactions; which equates human behaviors being governed by the equation A = TΔS - ΔH, in the chemical thermodynamics view.

Pre-human thermodynamicists
In a loose sense, a pre-human thermodynamicist is any writer or scientist to have professed views or theories on the heat or energy animation of human life prior to 1824, the founding year of the science of thermodynamics. These individuals are listed below. Preeminent in his list is German polymath Johann von Goethe who outlined a human chemical reaction theory based on interpersonal chemical affinities:

1. Hippocrates (c. 420 BC) - postulated that heat, originating from the left ventricle, functions to animate people.
2. Charles Montesquieu (1748) - argued that governmental laws need to be a function of temperature of the land.
   
3. Johann Goethe (1809) - explained existence as the product of affinity reactions; founder of human chemistry.
4. John Herschel (1833) - held that heat is the motive force powering not only people but the planet.

Cessation thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Cessation thermodynamics

The following individuals have theorized on the possible continuity between the movement of one's existence or life, good or bad, moral or amoral, and death or the termination of the individual, in the context of either the conservation of force, conservation of energy, or thermodynamic laws in general:

1. Ludwig Colding (1843) - derived a conservation of energy theory on the logic of the immortality of the soul.
2. Wilhelm Ostwald (1906) - discussed conservation and death; social energy; and stated the energetic imperative.
3. Mehdi Bazargan (1950s) - used thermodynamics in attempts to explain Islam, death, and reincarnation scientifically.
4. Louis-Marie Vincent (2000) - outlined the thermodynamics of life, love, and death (near-death-experiences).

Herbert Spencer (1862) initiated the Spencerian dilemma.

Early HT pioneers

See main: History of human thermodynamics

The following list shows those thermodynamicists, physicists, scientists and writers who, in some way or another, have published or professed their views on aspects of the thermodynamic operation of human life, up until the year 1952:

1. Hermann Helmholtz (1847) - thermodynamically analyzed Goethe's Faust and helped to found "psychodynamics".
2. William Thomson (1852) - argued that law of dissipation applies to life and the will of animate creatures.
3. Herbert Spencer (1862) - applied the the law of conservation of energy to evolution (biological and social).
   
4. Georg Helm (1887) - theorized on the nature of energy and entropy in sociology and economics.
5. Bryan Donkin (1893) - coined the term "human thermodynamics" (see: etymology) in an article on the work of Hirn.
   
6. Yevgeny Zamyatin (1920) - outlined a human molecule view of the thermodynamics of the Russian revolutions.
   
7. William Sidis (1920) - wrote The Animate and the Inanimate situated on the second law (William Thomson's view).
8. Howard Scott (1920) - founded "technocracy" based on a Gibbsian social-economic theory.
9. Alfred Lotka (1922) - outlined "exchange of energy" view of life; along with its social and economic implications.
10. Julian Huxley (1831) - promoted the view that evolution is anti-entropic.
11. Lewis Mumford (1934) - had views on economics and energy, social energetics, and religious thermodynamics.
    
12. Buckminster Fuller (1944) - energy slave concept; synergetics (1975), evolution and entropy (1976), ect.
    

Gustave Hirn (1856) conducted heat experiments on humans; and later theorized on the philosophical implications of thermodynamics (1869); the term "human thermodynamics" was coined in 1893, in reference to his work, by English engineer Bryan Donkin.

Philosophical thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Philosophical TPs

The following individuals published views or theories between thermodynamics and philosophy (philosophical thermodynamics):

1. Gustave Hirn (1869) - published Philosophical Implications of the Theory of Thermodynamics.
2. Émile Meyerson (1908) - published his thermodynamics based Identity and Reality.
   
3. Robert Lindsay (1942) - introduced the negentropy principle of ethics and the thermodynamic imperative (1963).
4. John Garcia (1971) - built on Pierre Teilhard, to outline a type of anti-entropy creative moral evolution theory.
   
5. Carter Finn (1974) – published: Religion, Philosophy, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
6. Fred Fox (1976) - outlined ideas on ethics based on the second law.
7. Jean-François Lyotard (1980s) - utilized entropy and negentropy in his post-modernism philosophical theories.
   
8. Elizabeth Porteus (1987) - developed a thermodynamic philosophy of happiness and life.
9. William Plank (2002) - outlined a Teilhard-based dissipative system philosophy on Nietzsche's "will to power".
   

Sigmund Freud (1923) founded the science of psychodynamics.

Psychodynamic or psychological thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Psychological TPs

The following individuals contributed either ideas, theories and concepts in psychodynamics or on connections between psychology and thermodynamics (psychological thermodynamics or social psychological thermodynamics):

1. Ernst Brücke (1874) – published his energy-based Lectures on Psychology.
2. Oswald Kulpe (1895) - discussed the conservation of energy in relation to mental processes.
3. N. Krainsky (1897) – published a treatise on the energetics of psychical activity.
4. Vladimir Bekhterev (1897) - published views on the psyche, energetics, and conditioned social reflexes.
5. Nicolas von Grot (1898) - put forward views on psychic energy in relation to the conservation of energy.
6. Theodor Lipps (1903) - discussed views on psychic energy and the subconscious.
7. Sigmund Freud (1923) - founded psychodynamics with his id, ego, super-ego force theory of subconscious drives.
8. Carl Jung (1928) - developed an psychic entropy view of consciousness.
9. Siegfried Bernfeld (1930) - applied energy, entropy, and Le Chatelier’s principle, to psychology in measurement.
10. Sergei Feitelberg (1930) - applied energy, entropy, and Le Chatelier’s principle, to psychology in measurement.
11. Jacques Lacan (c.1940s) - examined and expanded on Freud's energy-entropy human heat engine views.
    
12. Eric Berne (1964) - built on Freud's psychodynamics to develop transactional analysis.
13. Daniel Katz (1966) - outlined a general systems theory of entropy in the social psychology of organization.
14. Robert Kahn (1966) - outlined a general systems theory of entropy in the social psychology of organization.
15. Dimitri Katakis (1978) - used entropy in psychotherapy and conceived of teleonomic entropy (1982).
16. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (1990) - developed a negentropism view of optimal experience called "flow".
17. Francisco Téllez (2003) - outlined a psychodynamic theory of a reversible, mini-reaction, type of heightened sex.
18. Tullio Scrimali (2008) - published a entropy of mind theory of schizophrenia.
    

Frederick Soddy (1920s) used the laws of thermodynamics to explain the regulation of economy, and the nature of wealth and debt.

Economic thermodynamics pioneeers

See main: Economic TPs

The following individuals contributed either ideas, theories and concepts in economic thermodynamics or on connections between economics and thermodynamics:

1. Sergei Podolinsky (1880) - scrutinized the economic process from a thermodynamic perspective
2. Emanuele Sella (1910) - outlined "economic temperature", entropy, and specific heat of economic systems.
3. Frederick Soddy (1922) - outlined his views on wealth, energy, economics, and thermodynamics.
4. Jacques Rueff (1922) - argued that thermodynamics could be applied to economics.
5. Harold Davis (1941) - coined the term "economic entropy".
6. Kenneth Boulding (1966) - coined the term "material entropy".
7. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1971) - developed a rudimentary second law theory of economic process.
8. Lev Rozonoer (1973) - discussed economics and resource allocation via thermodynamic analogies.
   
9. John Bryant (1974) – synthesized thermodynamic theories of economics.
10. Herman Daly (1977) - outlines a theory on laws of thermodynamics in relation to a steady-state economy.
11. George Gilder (1981) - argues that Shannon information theory reconciles evolution, economics, and growth.
    
12. Xenophon Zolotas (1981) - outlined his view that the entropy law governs economic growth.
13. Julian Simon (1981) - argued that the second law is irrelevant to long term continual growth of human welfare.
    
14. Thomas DeGregori (1986) - published “Technology and Negative Entropy” on resources and states of entropy.
15. Philip Mirowski (1989) - outlined a dismal view of the use of thermodynamics in economcs.
16. Jürgen Mimkes (1995) - formulated various economic and sociological thermodynamic theories.
17. Stefan Baumgärtner (1996) - furthered thermodynamic investigations in ecological economics.
18. Kozo Mayumi (1997) - applied entropy in ecological economics..
19. Philip Parker (2000) - situated the conception of "physioeconomics" to explain the equatorial paradox.
20. Jing Chen (2002) - outlined an analytical economic thermodynamic information theory.
21. Dimitris Keranis (2005) - outlined a Gibbs free energy economic theory.
22. Eric Beinhocker (2006) - outlined a Georgescu-Roegen based entropy-irreversbility-fitness theory of wealth.
23. Octavian Ksenzhek (2007) - proposed a economic thermodynamics energy-entropy view of virtual money.

Ludwig Boltzmann (1886) argued, instead of life being a struggle for existence, it is a struggle for entropy.

Life thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Life TPs, Life thermodynamics

The following list shows those thermodynamicists, physicists, scientists and writers who, in some way or another, have published or professed their views on aspects of the "thermodynamic" operation of "life":

1. Ludwig Boltzmann (1886) - outlined the view that "life is a struggle for entropy".
2. Georg Hirth (1900) - introduces the term “ektropy” (opposite to entropy) in life-bearing structures.
3. Felix Auerbach (1910) - on the work of Hirth, wrote on "ectropy" as the evolving thermodynamic force of living form.
4. Stéphane Leduc (1911) - outlined a mechanistic view of life based on energetics and thermodynamics.
5. James Johnstone (1914) - outlined a mechanistic view of life based on thermodynamics.
6. Henry Osborn (1916) - lectured on thermodynamic view of mechanistic evolution and of hereditary substance.
7. Charles Guye (1922) - questioned how one can understand life in the context of second law physical evolution.
   
8. Vladimir Vernadsky (1926) - outlined six-layer "thermodynamic envelope" theory of "living matter" in the biosphere.
9. Ronald Fisher (1930) - outlined his views on the relations between entropy, fitness, and natural selection.
10. James Jeans (1933) - argued that life is defined by its capacity to evade the second law.
    
11. Charles Sherrington (1940) - explained life as an eddy in the energy flow in the context of the second law.
12. Erwin Schrödinger (1943) - reasoned that life "feeds on negative entropy"; also discussing free energy.
13. Alfred Ubbelohde (1947) – outlined the subject of “life thermodynamics” and coined the term “disentropic”.
14. Harold Blum (1950) - discussed time's arrow in relation to the second law and evolution.
15. Motoyosi Sugita (1952) - critiqued the negative entropy hypothesis; and founder of Society for Studies on Entropy.
    
16. Eugene Odum (1953) - incorporated the first two laws of thermodynamics into ecology.
17. Ramon Margalef (1957) - incorporated cybernetics, information theory, and thermodynamics into ecology.
    
18. Bernard Strehler (1962) - speculated on how entropy relates to aging.
    
19. James Lovelock (1964) - outlined views on entropy and life-detection on other planets.
20. John Neumann (1966) - postulated a free energy theory of self-replicating automatons.
21. Robert Ulanowicz (1970) - developed life thermodynamics theories of ecosystems.
22. Peter Molton (1978) - defined life are regions of order that use energy to maintain themselves against entropy.
23. James Miller (1978) - discussed entropy in the context of his living systems theory.
24. Paul Colinvaux (1979) - argued that the second law limits the size of ferocious animals.
25. Richard Gregory (1981) - argued that "life is a systematic reversal of entropy."
26. Martin Goldstein (1993) – discuss the energy and entropy calculations involved in the synthesis of a mouse.
27. Stuart Kauffman (1995) - outlined an evolution theory of Carnot cycle, work-producing, auto-catalyzed free energy driven-systems.
28. Fritjof Capra (1996) - outlined a Prigoginean dissipative structure based theory of biospheric living systems.
29. Srdan Lelas (2000) - argued that life is a local violation of the second law.
    
30. John Avery (2003) - proposed that "life maintains itself and evolves by feeding on Gibbs free energy."

Thomas Pynchon (1958) wrote several Maxwell's demon themed stories and novels.

Literature and arts thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Literature TPs, literature thermodynamics, art thermodynamics

The following are non-fiction authors (or artists) have used thermodynamics concepts in the scripting of themes in plays, stories, novels, or artwork.

1. Camille Flammarion (1893) - heat death themed science fiction novel: The End of the World (La fin du Monde).
2. Aldous Huxley (1937) – ideas on human entropy; second law themed novel Island (1962).
3. Isaac Asimov (1956) - second law / heat death centered short story The Last Question.
   
4. Thomas Pynchon (1958) - short story: Entropy (1960), novel:The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), etc.
5. Rudolf Arnheim (1971) - published views on ordering tendencies in life in relation to statistical disorder and art.
6. George Effinger (1972) - novel: What Entropy Means to Me, with a section on black hole entropy and god.
   
7. Vonda McIntyre (1981) - novel: The Entropy Effect.
8. William Paulson (1988) - wrote an information theory analysis book on the use of thermodynamics various novels.
   
9. Tom Stoppard (1993) - play: Arcadia (themed on Goethe's Elective Affinities).
10. Forbes Allan (1999) - book: Milton's Progress, themed on Prigoginean thermodynamics.
11. David Weir (2007) - does a comparative literature study on decadence in the context of energy and entropy.
    
12. James Sandham (2008) - novel: The Entropy of Aaron Rosclatt.

Human thermodynamics education pioneers
Aside from Lawrence Henderson (1930s), who taught aspects of social thermodynamics at Harvard University, and Robert Lindsay (1940s), who taught aspects of entropy ethics at Brown University, the following are noted human thermodynamics education pioneering teachers and professors who have taught or begun to teach specific courses on topics in human thermodynamics in high school or college:

1. Léon Winiarski (1894) - taught a course on "social mechanics", using Clausius and Lagrange, at the University of Geneva.
2. Dick Hammond (1978) - promoted an "entropy ethics" and energy education program, at the University of Texas.
3. Richard Piccard (1997) – taught a course called “Entropy and Society” via the physics department at Ohio University.
4. Douglas White (2000) - taught a anthropological thermodynamics course “Social Dynamics and Self Organizing Systems” at UC, Irvine.
5. Bruce Clarke (2001) - teaches literature thermodynamics at Texas Tech University.
6. Richard Hughes (2008) - teaches a course on the thermodynamics of government and politics, at California State University.

Ernest Solvay (1894) worked to establish a science of social energetics.

Sociological thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Sociological TPs

The following individuals used or incorporated thermodynamics logic in the study of sociology (i.e. sociological thermodynamics, social thermodynamics, socio-thermodynamics) or in the modeling of social systems:

1. Ernest Solvay (1894) - noted for his promotion of the science of social energetics.
   
2. Vilfredo Pareto (1896) - developed physical chemistry based social system models of "human molecules".
3. Lawrence Henderson (1935) - explained Pareto's 1916 sociology via Gibbsian thermodynamics "analogies".
4. Talcott Parsons (1937) - noted for his social action theory and its relation to the laws of thermodynamics.
5. Pitirim Sorokin (1941) attempted to relate or base his social cycle theory on Clausius entropy and heat death.
6. Niklas Luhmann (1960s) - a student of Parsons, noted for his views on entropy in his social systems theory.
   
7. Eugene Ruyle (1960s) developed a theory of "social thermodynamics".
8. Walter Buckley (1967) - utilized negentropy, culled from general systems theory, in theorizing about social decline.
   
9. Robert Nisbet (1970) - outlined a theory of "social entropy" and the entropy aspects of the "social bond".
10. Marlan Blissett (1972) - wrote a chapter on the "laws of social thermodynamics".
    
11. Jacques Ellul (1972) - theorized about entropy in modern society.
12. Edgar Morin (1977) - known as the sociologist of complexity theory.
    
13. Orrin Klapp (1978) outlined a Shannon-thermodynamics type theory of "entropic communication".
14. James Beniger (1986) - outlined a Maxwell's demon view of societies as eddies or currents in the heat flow of the sun.
15. Tony Rothman (1989) - applied creative skepticism to sociological applications of the second law of thermodynamics.
16. Kenneth Bailey (1990) - published a social entropy theory.
17. Josip Stepanić (2000) - published thermodynamics of social systems theories, e.g. social free energy.
18. Ingo Müller (2002) - developed a phase diagram view of "socio-thermodynamics".
19. Adrian Bejan (2007) - applied his thermodynamics-based constructal theory to the explanation of social dynamics.

Henry Adams (1910) described people as "human molecules" and argued that history abides by the laws of thermodynamics.

History thermodynamics pioneers

See main: History TPs

The following individuals used or incorporated the science of thermodynamics in the study of human history (history thermodynamics):

1. Brooks Adams (1895) - argued that history and civilization were governed by the laws of energetics (degradation).
2. William James (1907) - conceived of reserve energy; argued against the second law in human history (1909).
   
3. Henry Adams (1910) - viewed people a "human molecule"; suggested that history teachers learn the second law.
4. William Thayer (1918) - gave an appraisal of Henry Adams' Letter to American Teachers of History.
5. Stephen Brush (1978) - analyzed the thermodynamics of Henry Adams and Freud's death wish, etc.
6. David Christian (1990) - began teaching free energy / second law interpretation of "big history".
   
7. Lawrence Chin (1999) - outlined a thermodynamic-dissipation interpretation of history.
8. Robert Kenoun (2006) - outlined a thermodynamics-based systems internal energy theory of human history.

Pierre Teilhard (c.1916-50) outlined a human evolution theory, defined as a "spiritual energetics” or “psychodynamics, on the analogy of thermodynamics”, viewed as acts of a “motor force in the universe”.

Religious thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Religious TPs

Various individuals, throughout history, have either supposed a religious thermodynamics view of existence, in the pro or con, e.g. ideas on entropy and god, creationsim and the laws of thermodynamics, etc., or have wrote histories on the use of thermodynamics in religion, etc. In this group, to note, many of the founders of thermodynamics, such as James Joule, William Thomson, and James Maxwell, had strong religious convictions behind their contributions. A listing of individuals to have theorized or discussed relations between religion and thermodynamics include:

1. Pierre Teilhard (1920s) - developed a "spiritual energy" theory of thermodynamic evolution.
2. Bertrand Russell (1927) - argued against religion and god based on the heat death view of the second law.
3. Ernest Barnes (1927) - discussed connections between religion and the first and second law.
4. Pierre Lecomte du Nouy (1939) - used statistical thermodynamics to origination of life by chance is impossible.
   
5. Erwin Hiebert (1966) - wrote the 1,080-page treatise The Uses and Abuses of Thermodynamics in Religion.
6. John O'Manique (1969) - building on Teilhard, wrote Energy and Evolution.
   
7. Frank Lambert (1969) - wrote about different types of thermodynamic evil.
8. Henry Morris (1974) - adamently argued that evolution is impossible according to the second law.
9. Morgan Peck (1978) - outlined his view on entropy, evolution, evil, and love in his famous The Road Less Traveled.
10. Jeremy Rifkin (1980) - outlined a misapplied "material entropy" view of consumerism.
11. Robert Russell (1982) - outlined theories on the relation between entropy, disorder, and evil.
12. Arthur Peacocke (1986) - attempted to reconcile evolution and Christianity via Prigoginean thermodynamics.
    
13. Holmes Rolston (1999) - argued that "god as a countercurrent to entropy, a sort of biogravity that lures life upward."
14. Joseph Dewey (1999) - conceived of a energy-producing human "molecular relationship" Christian-themed theory.
    
15. Suma Varughese (2002) - stimulated by Lovelock, Peck, and Teilhard, writes on Hinduism, entropy and the life force.
16. John Sanford (2005) - outlined the concept of "genetic entropy"
17. John Patrick (2006) - developed a unified evolution theory crouched in thermodynamics and god.
    
18. DMR Sekhar (2006) - outlined a genopsych theory of conscious genes, god, and entropy.
19. Richard Rudd (2007) - gave a short new-age theory on activation energy, energy of goodwill, energy flow, etc.
    
20. Helge Kragh (2008) - wrote a history of the use of entropy in religion in his Entropic Creation.

Claude Shannon (1948) carried the statistical view entropy over into the field of information theory, with implied thermodynamic connotations.

Information theory thermodynamic investigators
Several individuals, in developing the field of information theory thermodynamics, on the suggestive modellings of Erwin Schrödinger and John Neumann, have been led along the path with the view that the "information" (measured in bits) of computer systems and signal processing, defined by highs and lows (1s or 0s) of either voltage potentials or current flows, is the same as the "entropy" (measured in J/K·mol), the latter defined as lost system work-energy due to irreversible molecular interactions, of heat engines. These individulas include:

1. Leó Szilárd (1927) - wrote his thesis on entropy decrease in relation to intelligent beings (Maxwell's demon).
2. Claude Shannon (1948) - used the term "entropy" (as a measure of information) in his information theory.
3. Norbert Wiener (1948) - outlined an information-type energy-entropy based theory of "cybernetics".
4. Léon Brillouin (1950) - exorcised Maxwell's demon using a negentropy principle of information.
5. Olivier Costa de Beauregard (1963) - gave a negative entropy / information theory of consciousness.
   
6. James Coleman (1964) - outlined a Shannon entropy type "entropy index" of racial diversity.
7. Johan Galtung (1967) - conceived of an entropy-based theory of peace and conflict.
   
8. Lila Gatlin (1970) - wrote on evolution, living systems, genetic information, second law, and information theory.
9. Jay Teachman (1980) - developed a information entropy index of social diversity.
10. Jeremy Campbell (1982) - recounted the history of information theory and its supposed relation to life.
11. Seth Lloyd (1988) - ideas on thermodynamic depth and Shannon entropy and mate selection.
    
12. Luciano Floridi (1999) - outlined a view of entropy as a form of evil in information ethics (entropy ethics).
13. Terry Bynum (2005) - outlined a view of a relation between entropy and purpose in human life.

Leslie White (1943) described as “anthropology’s most significant prophet of the second law.”

Anthropological thermodynamics pioneers
The following individuals used thermodynamics theory in the study of anthropology (anthropological thermodynamics):

1. Leslie White (1943) - scripted crude formulas on the nature of energy, entropy, and free energy in culture.
   
2. Claude Lévi-Strauss (1955) - outlined a theory of "entropology", the entropic study of anthropology.
3. Steven Polgar (1961) - outlined his views on "entropy retarding" processes in culture and anthropology.
4. Peter Hammond (1964) - theorized on cultural systems in terms of energy and entropy expenditures.
5. Georges Balandier (1967) argued that power is a struggle against entropy.
   
6. Richard Adams (1975) - published books on energy, entropy, dissipative structures and social evolution.
   
7. David Aberle (1987) - argued that thermodynamic irrreversible models need to replace Newtonian models.
8. Paul Bohannan (1995) - discussed the need for quantification of heat, energy, and temperature in cultural terms.

C.G. Darwin (1952) defined human thermodynamics as the study of systems of human molecules.

1952-1994 HT pioneers
The following list shows those individuals who, in some way or another, have published or professed their views on aspects of the thermodynamic operation of human existence either during or after the year 1952, the publication of English physicst C.G. Darwin's book The Next Million Years, in which evolving social systems were defined as thermodynamic systems of "human molecules" governed by the science of "human thermodynamics":

1. Charles Galton Darwin (1952) - defined "human thermodynamics" as the study of systems of human molecules.
2. Howard Odum (1955) - conceived of the maximum power principle and an energy basis theory for man (1976).
3. Charles Herrick (1956) - discussed human social evolution in relation to the second law.
4. Howard Seifert (1960) - wrote and lectured on "Can We Decrease Our Entropy?"
   
5. Jack Kirkaldy (1965) - outlined a free energy minimization theory of brain growth.
6. Ludwig Bertalanffy (1968) - outline a "general systems theory" thermodynamic view of biology and society.
7. Henry Bent (1971) - theorized about pollution and entropy and taught "entropy ethics" workshops.
8. Joel de Rosnay (1975) - gave a macroscope view of energy, entropy, free energy, life, and economics.
   
9. Ilya Prigogine (1977) - developed a "dissipative structure theory" of life.
10. Georgi Gladyshev (1978) - developed a Gibbsian "hierarchical thermodynamics" theory of human social evolution.
11. George Scott (1985) - theorized on the physical chemistry of free will and ethics via Prigoginean thermodynamics.
    
12. Karl-Henrik Robèrt (1987) - developed a theory of society towards sustainability based on thermodynamics.
13. Benjamin Kyle (1988) - wrote an essay on entropy in regards to humanity and philosophy.
14. Ronald Fox (1988) - argued that energy flow through society explains cultural evolution.
    
15. Eric Schneider (1988) - proposed that life thermodynamically evolved so to help "degrade the energy gradient".
16. Stephen Hawking (1988) - outlined views on a psychological arrow and entropy in relation to memorization.
17. Daniel Hershey (1988) - published entropy theories on aging and corporate structure.
    
18. Rodger Penrose (1989) - argued that humans are "configurations of tiny entropy".
19. Richard Delgado (1990) - proposed a law of racial thermodynamics.
20. Remy Lestienne (1990) - wrote a book on time, causality, entropy, and becoming.
    
21. Marek Roland-Mieszkowski (1992) - theorized on light, life, thermodynamics, diet, and wellness.
22. William Gairdner (1994) - outlined a theory of social entropic force acting on societies, moving them towards heat death.
23. Pierre Levy (1994) - presented a human molecular social engineering theory using human thermodynamics.
    

Business thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Business thermodynamics, Business chemistry

The following individuals have theorized on entropy or thermodynamics in respect to company or corporation structure or operation:

1. Bruce Gunn (1968) - argued that Le Chatelier's principle and transformation of energy define employee motivation.
2. Tom DeMarco (1987) - corporate entropy ideas and stated a "second thermodynamic law of management."
3. Timothy Lister (1987) - corporate entropy ideas and stated a "second thermodynamic law of management."
4. Robert D. Handscombe (2004) - book: The Entropy Vector: Connecting Business and Science.
5. Eann A. Patterson (2004) - book: The Entropy Vector: Connecting Business and Science.
6. Paul Strassman (2005) - lectured on entropy and its relation to IT spending and company organization.
7. Lynn Liss (2005) - outlined a human thermodynamics based information technologies consulting theory.
8. Surya Pati (2009) - theorized on chemical thermodynamics of business systems as human chemical reactions.

Architectural thermodynamics pioneers

See main: Architectural thermodynamics

The following have used thermodynamic theory in the development of architectural theory or design:

1. Alan Wilson (1970) - used thermodynamics and entropy logic to facilitate city planning.
2. Luis Fernández-Galiano (1991) - outlined an energy and entropy theory of architectural design.
3. Nikos Salingaros (1997) - developed a thermodynamic analogy architectural design theory.

Frederick Rossini (1971) related the equilibrium constant ln K, enthalpy change ΔH, and entropy change ΔS to the freedom-security paradox of modern life.

Political thermodynamics pioneers
The following individuals published theory on the use of thermodynamics in politics (political thermodynamics) or government (government thermodynamics):

1. Frederick Rossini (1971) - explained the paradox between freedom and security via chemical thermodynamics.
2. Harold Neiburg (1973) - coined the term "political thermodynamics".
3. Stephen Coleman (1975) - did his PhD dissertation on political thermodynamics, political entropy, and voting.
4. Lyndon LaRouche (1975) - promotes a Vernadsky-based "physical economy" and has ran for US president.
   
5. Kenneth Stokes (1994) - wrote: Man and the Biosphere: Toward a Co-evolutionary Political Economy.
6. Ira Livingston (1997) - analyzes the "political thermodynamics" of Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine.
7. Robert Clark (1997) - noted for his thermodynamics based global imperative.
   
8. Terrel Gallaway (1998) - noted for his thermodynamics article in the Encyclopedia of Political Economy.

Libb Thims (1995) began to formulate the logic of human chemical thermodynamics; thus publishing the pre-requisite textbook Human Chemistry (2007) and booklet on the history of the concept of the "human molecule" (2008).

Post 1995 HT pioneers
The following list shows those individuals who, in some way or another, have published or professed their views on aspects of the thermodynamic operation of human existence either during or after the year 1995, the year that American chemical engineer Libb Thims began to conceive of a human chemical thermodynamics theory of human existence. In a sense, this key year should be a demarcation in the mind of humanity at which point the above average chemical engineering student, adept at chemical engineering thermodynamics, should have had some type of chemical thermodynamics logic in their mind as to the predictive nature of love (as a chemical reaction) in human relationships and the study of "systems" of humans or people as reactive volumes of human molecules, delineated by boundaries, attached to catalytic substrate, acting as evolving chemical aggregates: