Hans Ziegler was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on 5 September 1910, and died in Estes Park, Colorado, on 5 August 1985.

Hans Ziegler was an academic and was the author of textbooks on engineering and thermodynamics, which were translated into other languages, and re-issued in new editions.

In non-equilibrium thermodynamics, he considered a 'principle of maximum dissipation rate'.

He was also an early proponent of a 'principle of maximum rate of entropy production', which is closely related to a 'principle of maximum dissipation rate'.

The range of applicability and validity or invalidity of these 'principles' has been examined and debated by many others,[2][3][4] and their eventual scientific status is yet to be settled.