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David M. Scienceman

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David M. Scienceman
NationalityAustralian
Known forEmergy synthesis
Scientific career
FieldsMathematician and Natural Philosopher and Chemical Engineer and Nuclear Physicist

David M. Scienceman is an Australian scientist; he changed his name from David Slade by deed poll in 1972. McGhee (1990) wrote that his change of name from Slade to Scienceman was an experiment to create a movement of scientifically aware politicians. In a world dominated by scientific achievements and problems, Slade believed that there should be a political party that represented the scientific point of view (Cadzow 1984).

Scienceman has a mathematics and physics degree and a PhD in chemical engineering from Sydney University (Australia), on a scholarship from the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (Cadzow 1984).

At a meeting of the World Future Society in 1976, a group of American feminists told him his new name was unbearably sexist. He saw their point and decided that a better title for members of the Scientific Party would be "Sciencemate" (Cadzow 1984).

For Cadzow, Scienceman:

... believes it is possible to measure anything, even money, in terms of its embodied energy. "To operate a supply of banknotes you've got to have a very large commercial organisation. You've got to have banks, you've got to have printing houses. They themselves consume a large amount of energy". By comparing the money flow with the energy flow, which has been broken down to mathematical units, "we can say that a dollar is equivalent to so many units of embodied energy."(The Australian 1984, p. 7)

Author of emergy nomenclature

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Scienceman claimed to be the author of the nomenclature of "emergy". In a letter to the Ecological Engineering journal (1997, p. 209) he wrote:

"... as the author of the nomenclature 'emergy, empower, emdollar, embit, energy memory and the maximum empower principle'...

H.T. Odum (1997, p. 215) wrote:

... Scienceman contributed in major ways to the concepts and application of emergy evaluation off and on over a 10-year period. ... As a library scholar without equal, David researched the basis for scientific nomenclature and linguistic roots.

References

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  • J. Cadzow (1984) Dr Scienceman's brave new word, The Australian, Newspaper Article, Tuesday, 15 May, p. 7.
  • H.T. Odum (1997) Letter to the Editor: Emergy terminology. Ecol. Engr. 9: 215–216. ISSN 0925-8574, doi:10.1016/S0925-8574(97)10010-6.
  • J. McGhee (1990), Super Scienceman, Extract from the Edinburgh EVENING NEWS, Scotland, 6 April, p. 1.
  • D.M. Scienceman (1987) Energy and Emergy. In G. Pillet and T. Murota (eds), Environmental Economics: The Analysis of a Major Interface. Geneva: R. Leimgruber. pp. 257–276. (CFW-86-26)
  • D.M. Scienceman (1989) The Emergence of Emonomics[permanent dead link]. In Proceedings of the International Society for General Systems Research Conference (2–7 July 1989), Edinburgh, Scotland, 7 pp. (CFW-89-02).
  • D.M. Scienceman (1991) Emergy and Energy: The Form and Content of Ergon. Discussion paper. Gainesville: Center for Wetlands, University of Florida. 13 pp. (CFW-91-10)
  • D.M. Scienceman (1995), The Emergy Synthesis of Religion and Science[permanent dead link], Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida. 13pp.
  • D.M. Scienceman (1997) Letters to the Editor: Emergy definition, Ecological Engineering, 9, pp. 209–212. ISSN 0925-8574, doi:10.1016/S0925-8574(97)10009-X.
  • D.M. Scienceman (1992), Emvalue and Lavalue, Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida.
  • D.M. Scienceman and B.M. El-Youssef (1993) The System of Emergy Units, in Packham, R. ed. Ethical management of science as a system, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Proceedings of the thirty-seventh annual meeting, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 5–9 July, pp. 214–223.
  • D.M. Scienceman and F. Ledoux (2000) Sublimation, in M.T.Brown (ed.) Emergy Synthesis:Theory and Applications of the Emergy Methodology, Proceedings of the 1st Biennial Emergy Analysis Research Conference, Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida, pp. 317–321.