[jimcsharp]

That's a really charming synonym for 'scientist'

[Steuard]

What, "experimentalist"? That's not a synonym for "scientist", it's a subset.

At least in physics, the main categories are "experimentalist" and "theorist". You'll sometimes find intermediate categories like "phenomenologist" (people who apply basic theory to make detailed predictions for experimental measurements) or "computational(-ist?)" (people who measure experimental-style results from simulations of basic theory).

[kaybe]

I think we should add a third category, 'modeller', as in someone who runs experiments in silica. It's not really an experiment, and it's not really just theory.

[Steuard]

Assuming I understand you, that's what I was getting at with "computational" scientists as a separate or intermediate category.

[raverbashing]

The theorists disagree with you, and I'm sure they have a long paper with lots of equations explaining why.

(it's a joke)

[pdpi]

Not quite. Scientists also come in the Theoretician variety.