Heinz von Foerster once told Stuart Umpleby that Norbert Wiener preferred the term "cybernetician" rather than "cyberneticist", perhaps because Wiener was a mathematician rather than a physicist.
[citation needed] The word "cyberneticist" was used by Nicolas Rashevsky who began as a theoretical physicist.
Robert Rosen, who began his career as a mathematician, regarded neurocybernetics—and more generally biocybernetics—as fields closely allied to mathematical biology and mathematical biophysics in which control theory and dynamical system theories also play significant roles.
[citation needed] Today "cybernetician" is preferred by members of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC)[1] and British Cybernetics Society (CybSoc).
Accordingly, a cyberneticist meant an expert in computer science or engineering.