[bigger_cheese]

I studied Materials Engineering. Similar experience.

Carnot, Thompson, Clausius, Gibbs, Rankine, Boltzman etc all made big historical contributions to modern understanding of Thermodynamics.

And for Fluid Dynamics: Euler, Bernoulli, Mach, Stokes and so on.

And if you are looking for someone more modern I'd say Ergun (Packed bed's, Fluidized Bed Reactors etc).

All builds upon "steam science"