In science, Kenneth Ewart Boulding (1910-1993) was an English-born American economist notable for having been a developer of general systems theory (1956), for coining the term “material entropy” (1966), and for having introduced a view of entropy and the second law in ecodynamics, in relation to social evolution (1978). [1] Boulding is also noted for having introduced the concept of entropy in ecological economics, particularly on the subject of waste material management. [2]

Economic thermodynamics
Some have argued that the science of economic thermodynamics began following the publication of Boulding’s famous 1966 article “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth”, first presented at the Sixth Resources for the Future Forum on Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy in Washington, D.C. on March 8, in conjunction with Romanian mathematician Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen’s 1971 book The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, after which economist became interested in the subject. [3]

Influence
In his work, Boulding referenced the logic of French philosopher Pierre Teilhard, and his views on entropy and the noosphere, as well as Ludwig Bertalanffy, and his views on entropy and open systems, which may have been possible sources from where he learned the concept of entropy, albeit in a very erroneous or elementary sense.

References
1. (a) Boulding, Kenneth E. (1956). “General Systems Theory: the Skeleton of Science”, Management Science, 2: 197-208.
(b) Boulding, Kenneth E. (1966). Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy. John Hopkins Press.
(c) Boulding, Kenneth E. (1978). Ecodynamics: A New Theory of Social Evolution (keyword: entropy). Sage Publication.
2. Mayumi, Kozo and Giampietro, Mario. (2004). Ch. 5: “Entropy in Ecological Economics” (pgs. 80-101) in Modelling in Ecological Economics by John Proops and Paul Safonov. Edward Elgar Publishing.
3. (a) O’Hara, Phillip A. (1999). Encyclopedia of Political Economy, (section: “Entropy, Negentropy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics”, pg. 261-65). Routledge.
(b) Boulding, Kenneth E. (1966). "The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth", in H. Jarret, ed., Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy. Johns Hopkins University Press.
(c) This paper (Spaceship Earth) was first presented by Kenneth Ewart Boulding at the Sixth Resources for the Future Forum on Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy in Washington, D.C. on March 8, 1966.
(d) The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth – Encyclopedia of Earth.

External links
● Kenneth E. Boulding – Wikipedia.
● Boulding’s Evolutionary Perspective – Wikipedia.