observationalist

noun

observationalist

noun

Etymology From observational + -ist.

1

One who relies on empirical observations.

And so the stage was set for the current dispute, again pitting observationalists against theorists on the subject of global warming’s influence on the storms.2007 July 1, Lisa Margonelli, “Wild Is the Wind”, in New York Times:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.