2016 Book Plates - Collections

In Search of the Castaways: The Children of Captain Grant
Jules Verne

Around the world search for castaways guided by a partially destroyed message in a bottle found in a shark’s belly is a fitting allegory to the process of scientific discovery.

Pierre Albin – Mathematics

The Atiyah-Patodi-Singer Index Theorem
Richard Melrose

This book, written by my postdoctoral mentor and mathematical grandfather, has been a constant source of inspiration. His approach to special geometric situations by cleverly changing the category and developing the ‘usual’ analysis through a geometric toolkit is powerful and adaptable and often gifts you with precise refined results.

Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms
Carol Ann Tomlinson and Susan Demirsky Allan

This wonderful book, co-authored by my mother, introduced me to the concept and practice of differentiated instruction in the classroom, a technique I have used successfully to enrich student learning in the courses I have taught at UIUC.

Wave Propagation in Periodic Structures
Leon Brillouin

This is an amazing book because it clearly explains the dispersion formula called Brillioun Zones, well known in physics. This is one of Leon Brillioun’s very best books. The second best book is with Sommerfeld “Wave Propagation and Group Velocity” published by Academic Press in 1960.

Taiyou Orugan
Ryoji Arai

Ryoji Arai is a Japanese illustrator who received The 2005 Astrid Lindgren Memorial award. In his picture books, such as Taiyou Orugan (The sun organ), he paints feelings, movement, sounds and silence. The world of the child created by Ryoji helps us become aware that childhood is a truly universal phenomenon.

Earthly Measures
Edward Hirsch

Memorable book of poems.

Ciudades, Esquinas – Cities, Corners
Manuel de Solà-Morales

Beyond a catalogue of an exhibition, this rare book constitutes an intuitive and provocative urban manifesto. The corner as a physical place and a metaphor for the city exemplifies Manuel de Solà-Morales’ creative and non-conventional intellectual legacy. Cities, corners, gestated whilst my son, culminated a decade of collaboration with Manuel and sparked my actual research.

How Will You Measure Your Life?
Clayton Christensen

This book reminds me to focus on the things that matter most, including my family, my faith, and the potential to influence others for good. I use this book on the last day of class to show how the most important business lessons are those that can be applied in the walls of your home.

Origins of Genome Architecture
Michael Lynch

With new tools for genome sequencing, we have the ability to ask new questions. This book is a great introduction to how and why genomes differ between organisms.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Audre Lorde

Lorde, champion of humanist struggle, was always a faithful reminder of the work of writing. “Each of us is here now because in one way or another we share a commitment to language, to the power or language, and to the reclaiming of that language which has been made to work against us.”

The Price of Linguistic Productivity
Charles Yang

This book represents a landmark development in unraveling the puzzle of human language acquisition.

Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler

This novel describes a future not too different from our present, with worsening climate change and empowered, violent bigots. Under a Trump presidency I feel we can use all the guidance we can get on how to listen to and follow the leadership of women of color.

Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project
Robert Moses & Charles E. Cobb Jr.

Dr. Moses taught me about the links between the Civil Rights Movement and mathematical literacy for historically underrepresented youth. He argues that standardized testing serves as a mechanism to exclude African-American children from opportunities. Radical Equations inspired me to investigate questions pertaining to statistics, psychometrics, educational achievement, and testing.

Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam
Shahab Ahmed

This book, by one of my former undergraduate students, is a brilliant discussion of how religious truth becomes established as orthodoxy. Sadly, Shahab Ahmed succumbed to leukemia in 2015.

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, Mark A. McDaniel

This book inspired me to find ways to improve my teaching, building on how people learn best. It also opened my eyes to the concept that my classroom could also be a laboratory. The book encouraged me to try new techniques in teaching and share that information with others.

Swine Nutrition
Austin J. Lewis, L. Lee Southern

With contributions by all of the leading swine nutrition experts, including my late PhD advisor, Dr. David, H. Baker, this comprehensive reference is a staple for generations of scientists.

The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live–and How You Can Change Them.
Richard J. Davidson, PhD, Sharon Begley

Davidson’s work has been quite influential in my own research, since early stages of my career. This book reflects very well his great ability to translate sound and valuable scientific knowledge to a larger audience. I would recommend it to graduate and undergraduate students and to my own friends, family, and (much younger) kids, alike.

Zinfandel–A Croatian-American Wine Story
Jasenka Piljac, Zelimir Basic, Vladimir Jelaska

Combining my favorite wine variety with my wife’s heritage is a perfect recipe for a beautiful life.

Actuarial Theory for Dependent Risks
Michel Denuit, Jan Dhaene, Marc Goovaerts, Rob Kaas

An excellent introductory book on the modeling and measurement of multivariate dependent risks. Not only is the book accessible to any college student, it also provides a very comprehensive coverage of important findings in this particular area of actuarial research.

Unbought and Unbossed
Shirley Chisholm

I admire Shirley Chisholm as a true pioneer for Black civil rights, progressive political activism, and women’s rights, and via her moving and honest autobiography, I wanted to honor her legacy in this particularly significant yea

Primitive: The Art and Life of Horace H. Pippin
Janice N. Harrington

Despite the challenges, Horace H. Pippin made art. His tenacity and self-believe inspire.

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life
Parker J. Palmer

This book was recommended to me in my first year as a librarian by a dear friend and mentor. I am a knower, a teacher, and a learner. “To teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced.”

Malcolm X Speaks
Malcolm X

Finding this book in my mother’s office in 8th grade changed my life, inspiring my first “research” project and a reconsideration of my place in the world. With our nation having just elected a virulently racist president with no regard for facts, it is now as important as ever to listen to Malcolm X speak.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Patrick Süskind

Patrick Süskind’s Das Parfüm is a historical novel set in the eighteenth century. The protagonist is born with an exceptional sense of smell. He becomes a perfumer but turns into a murderer when he encounters a young girl with a wondrous scent. This novel led me to become an eighteenth-century scholar.

Synergetics: Introduction and Advanced Topics
Hermann Haken

This book is an excellent reference for studying fundamental aspects of open dissipative systems.

GAUGE FIELDS, KNOTS AND GRAVITY (Series on Knots and Everything)
John Baez , Javier P Muniain

While this book covers very advanced physics material, it is remarkably readable, due to the unmatched expositional ability of the author John Baez.

Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad and Tobago
Ramin Ganeshram

Sweet Hands was a Christmas present from my husband. The recipes and pictures reflect my Trinidadian culture, my family, and the foods I grew up eating. For this islander – now living in the Midwest – this book helps me feel close to all the individuals that made it possible for me to be at the University of Illinois.

Hidden Figures
Margot Lee Shetterly

The scientific work of women and minorities is devalued all too often, whether deliberately or accidentally. This choice is my way of helping us realize and remember the valuable contributions made by marginalized scientists and mathematicians.

Try It, You’ll Like It!
Mark Brown

Becasue the mother works.
Because the father is a cook.
Becasue I read it to my three children.
Because it makes me laugh.

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs
Ansel Adams, Andrea G. Stillman

I have always been inspired by the natural beauty that Ansel Adams exposed through his photography. Although my job focuses inwards towards the internals of computing, my career has given me the opportunity to travel the world and explore so many places through the lens of my own camera.

Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
John Von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstern

This book is a foundational work in decision and game theory. It was also the very first economics book that introduced the field of decision analysis and economics to me. It largely shaped my academic pursuits in the years that followed.

Blow Up and Other Stories
Julio Cortázar

Growing up, this, more than any other book captivated my imagination. No other writer has inspired me like Cortazar. At a time and place when reality around me was so grim, Cortazar’s pen was a magic wand-erlust that constantly redefined the limits of creativity and the pleasures of exploring them.

The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit…” Although I realize Dostoevsky borrowed the message, he breathes it to life in this novel. On so many levels, practically, philosophically and spiritually, this is a golden nugget.

Veterinary Neuroanatomy and Clinical Neurology
Alexander de Lahunta, Eric N. Glass

This text embodies all aspects of my life at the University. This book represents my research interests in understanding the workings of the brain and my love of neuroanatomy. Further, this book is the foundation for my teaching of first-year veterinary students at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

A System of Architectural Ornament: According with a Philosophy of Man’s Powers
Louis H. Sullivan

As a graduate student I discovered Louis H. Sullivan’s A System of Architectural Ornament (1924). The philosophical ideas combined with explanations of how to create beauty helped me escape the modernist ideology of my education. I remember the rare book’s aroma, weight, texture, words, and drawings, introducing me to the engaging potential of sensory design.

The Phantom Tollbooth
Norton Juster

Words and numbers can live in harmony, and together defeat Ignorance. I read this book aloud to my 8 and 11 year old daughters, and it was a special experience for all of us.

The Composer’s Advocate: A Radical Orthodoxy for Musicians
Erich Leinsdorf

For me, this book is a reminder that curiosity, scholarship, and true investigation lead to the most honest and sincere interpretations of music. This is an especially important lesson for students today who live in a society where numerous collections of other people’s opinions of a composer’s intent are just a few, quick keystrokes away.

Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings on Ecology and Conservation
Aldo Leopold

A great landmark in American environmental thought, history, ethics, and literature. This book taught me about the land where I am from, and every other land too.

Cohomology of Quotients in Symplectic and Algebraic Geometry
Frances Clare Kirwan

The techniques developed by Kirwan are essential to my, and my Ph.D. students’ research of the last 5 years.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Richard Rhodes

This book was recommended to me by my Ph.D. adviser, Dr. Carlos Daganzo, when I was a student at Berkeley. It helps me gain a perspective on and at the same time appreciate, some 60 years later, one of the most influential scientific advances in human history.

My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962
Eleanor Roosevelt, edited by David Emblidge

She’s my hero! A smart, forward looking woman who was way ahead of her time.

Natural Selection and Tropical Nature: Essays on Descriptive and Theoretical Biology
Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace is the father of biogeography and a co-discoverer of evolution. He was also a working scientist, someone who did not come from wealth. When I teach biogeography, I am always impressed by how much Wallace was able to surmise about the natural world. His blind spot was human evolution.

Fluid Mechanics
L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz

Part of Landau and Lifshitz’s classic Course of Theoretical Physics, this book provides exceptionally clear and rigorous discussions of all aspects of fluid mechanics. It is perhaps not as good as Batchelor’s text for complete beginners, but it was my introduction to the field, and I still refer to it frequently.

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving
Carol Deppe

The maker-movement for plants! Fun, inspiring, accessible, empowering. With the non-expert audience in mind, Carol Deppe invites all gardeners and farmers to share in the joy, art and science of breeding plants.

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman

This is a great book to read. The book discusses how our everyday decision and behavior are influenced by our emotions. The topics in the book are also relevant to my research area on the impact of moods and emotions and advertising on decision making.

The Score, the Orchestra, and the Conductor
Gustav Meier

Mr. Meier was my teacher, mentor, and friend. I assisted him in editing this book and am mentioned as such in the forward. Gustav Meier passed away on May 26, 2016.

Alkebulan’s Son: The Piano Works of James Lee III
Rochelle Sennet

I present my first commercial solo recording. This project features the piano works of African American composer, James Lee III, and was recorded in Foellinger Great Hall at Krannert Center in 2014. These piano works feature an array of influences from music of the African diaspora, Western music, and Latin American music.

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman

This book talks about intuition, emotions, and logic, which I believe that they are the most important elements in design process. Also, it helps designers to understand consumers.

Zoolook (Music CD)
Jean-Michel Jarre

This is the recording that opened my eyes to the incredible things one can do with arts and computing. Featuring some of the world’s best musicians and cutting edge technology, it contains out-of-this-world sounds that still inspire me after listening to it countless times. It will change your understanding of what music can be!

Primates in Perspective
Christina J. Campbell, Agustin Fuentes, Katherine C. MacKinnon, Simon K. Bearder, Rebecca M. Stumpf

I hope that this book inspires interest among students of the University of Illinois in the amazing diversity of primates, the need to learn more about the natural world, and the necessity of conserving it.

Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile
John Hanson Mitchell

John Hanson Mitchell offers a fascinating, non-linear approach to history of place in which the trappings of past, present and future coexist at once. This book is especially meaningful to me in understanding and unpacking my own family’s two hundred year inhabitance in a small Midwest farming community.

The Experimental Housing Project (PREVI), Lima – Design and Technology in a New Neighborhood
Peter Land

Prof. Peter Land’s influence on me has been tremendous, he is a role model for any architect who wants to positively influence change. This year I was particularly happy to hear the news that Peter had finally completed the book that had taken him over 50 years to write.

Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film
Miriam Hansen

Miriam Hansen, who died in 2011, was one of the greatest influences on my scholarship at the University of Chicago, and my ideal model for how to be a cinema scholar and historian. She was a giant, and I am glad to have been able to be mentored by her.

Mors Lilla Olle Och Andra Visor AV A.T.
Alice Tegner, Elsa Beskow

My mother used to read this to me when I was very young. This book represents the beginning of my lifelong love of reading, stories, and ideas.

Cuentos Completos (2 volumes)
Julio Cortázar

Cortázar’s short stories bring back memories of slower times and shared discussions with my best friend, Guiye, one of the most positive influences in my life. Once you read “Casa Tomada” or “Cartas de Mamá”, you are trapped by Cortázar and I am back with Guiye. Gracias amiga mía.

Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and Other Plays
Molière

A Chinese translation of Molière’s work was my favorite lunchtime reading when I was a teenager. Now as an adult, I enjoy the power of his writing by watching his comedies being played again and again by real people in the real world.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke

Locke’s philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding has been the focus of my work leading up to tenure.

Whispers From The Past 2015
Scott Garlock

These photographs document landscapes and places from my childhood that are now largely abandoned or neglected. I have a personal copy and it reminds me to be present in the moment because the only constant in life is change.

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James D. Watson

A famous, controversial, but ultimately honest account of scientific discovery: striving, competition, ignorance, guess work, failure, the moment of inspiration, and an achievement to be remembered for the ages! I’ve read this book over and over again post-tenure to date — every time I need that boost.

Intersectionality in Intentional Communities: The Struggle for Inclusivity in Multicultural U.S. Protestant Congregations
Assata Zerai

During this era of talk about diversity and inclusion, empirical work that takes these issues seriously helps to chart a way forward so we can learn to embrace difference, and benefit from the many perspectives brought to the fore when we decide to be intentional about inclusion. I offer this small contribution to that enterprise.

Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy
Michael Sherraden, Neil Gilbert

This book has inspired me to research investment approaches to empower the poor, improving their long-term financial capacity and future orientation.

The Morality of Law
Lon Fuller

This book offers what I find to be the most compelling defense of the rule of law. It explains why the rule of law has intrinsic moral value structures, and how the rule of law constrains the pursuit of injustice. This book has profoundly influenced my thinking since my early days of graduate school.