Honoring Our Faculty Achievements 2011 - Collections

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The Origins of Order
Stuart Kauffman

The book is an excellent description of the complexity and dynamics of co-evolving systems. While the author considers evolution of biological systems, the concepts of co-evolving networked ecosystems apply broadly to software, social networks, and economic systems, introducing some of the most fundamental open questions in network science.

Tarek Abdelzaher
Computer Science
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The First Steps in Algebra
G. A. Wentworth

My grandfather left school at age thirteen to support his family. This is one of the books from which he taught himself mathematics later in life.  It is a reminder of the true value of the opportunities which opened to the following generations.

Scott David Ahlgren
Mathematics
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Winnie-the-Pooh
A. A. Milne

These stories about a curious, adventuresome, and self-motivated teddy bear had a lasting effect on my early development and likely played a big part in my journey to the point where I am right now.

Aleksei Aksimentiev
Physics
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Arithmetic Moduli of Elliptic Curves
N. Katz & B. Bazur

This book was my introduction to arithmetic algebraic geometry, which had a big influence on the research which I was doing around the time I arrived at Illinois.

Matthew A. Ando
Mathematics
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Compressible Fluid Dynamics
Phillip A. Thompson

Both as a graduate student and as a faculty member, this has been one of the most often-used books in my library.

Joanna Marie Austin
Aerospace Engineering
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World Food Security: A History since 1945
John Shaw

I am a plant pathologist, with broad local, national, and international activities on plant disease management. My major goal of these activities is helping to establish sustainable global food security through improving crop yields and quality.

Mohammad Babadoost
Crop Sciences
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The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens
Claire Tomalin

This book is a brilliant combination of readable cultural history and biography, and a great piece of detective work. I enjoyed and was inspired by it, when writing my own study of an eminent Victorian. I have recommended it to friends and colleagues many times.

Christina Bashford
Music
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Life journeys: Seeking Destiney:
Conversations with Achieving Women in Kenya
Susan Wakhungu-Githuku

The book portrays seventy-four Kenyan women of diverse social and cultural backgrounds who tell compelling stories about their professional achievements.  The determination each of them has shown to overcome all kinds of social impediments will serve as an inspiring example for all African women.  Their sense of fulfillment is captured in the impressive photographs that illustrate the book.

Atoma T. Batoma
University Library
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Indirect Perception
Irvin Rock

This book was edited by Irv Rock, with whom I started my graduate school career.  Although my work has diverged considerably from that presented in this book, it shares the common underlying thesis that our visual experience is a complex construct of our brains.  This volume also contains a reprint of the very first article I published.

Diane M. Beck
Psychology
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Breeds of Beef Cattle
Purdy, Dawes & Hough

Much of the success that our research program has had in the past six years has been with the assistance of many cattle breeders and breed associations.

Jonathan Edward Beever
Animal Sciences
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What is Life?
Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan

An inspirational look at the marvelousness of life, written by an inspirational author.

Kaustubh Bhalerao
Agricultural & Biological Engineering
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Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry
Peter R. Griffiths & James A. De Haseth

This book is a classic reference in my primary field of scholarly inquiry and was greatly influential in my work and those of many others.

Rohit Bhargava
Bioengineering
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The study of Second Language Acquisition
Rod Ellis

This was the book that first opened my eyes to the field of second language acquisition that is so near to my heart.

Melissa A. Bowles
Spanish, Italian & Portuguese
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Southern Illinois: A Photographer’s Love for the Countryside and its Beauty
Ned Trovillion

My favorite places to go in the state, and my childhood home are in southern Illinois. The natural beauty, diversity, people, and agricultural communities in southern Illinois are what I hold dear about about southern Illinois. Every time I look at the beautiful pictures in this book, it takes me back home.

Carl Alan Bradley
Crop Sciences
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The California Water Atlas
William Kahrl

The California Water Atlas presents a wealth of visual information about water and surrounding physical, biological, and social issues. This beautifully illustrated book was an inspiration to me in my own studies.

Nicholas Brozović
Agricultural & Consumer Economics
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Principles of Magnetic Resonance
C. P. Slichter

Much of my background in magnetic resonance developed through reading Principles of Magnetic Resonance by C.P. Slichter. It is one of the best introductory texts on magnetic resonance, covering many of the key concepts in magnetic resonance with great clarity and rigor. I continue to use it in my own research; it is required reading for my graduate students.

Raffi Budakian
Physics
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Molecular Biology: Principles and Practice
Michael Cox, Jennifer Doudna & Michael O’Donnell

This book incorporates stories on the joy of scientific discovery. It emphasizes the fact that science is done by people who started not differently from the students on our campus. I hope that the joy expressed by the scientists featured in this book will inspire our students to even greater discoveries.

Isaac K. O. Cann
Animal Sciences & Microbiology
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El Filibusterismo
Jose Rizal

El Filibusterismo, is one of the great unsung works of postcolonial literature. With a keen eye for detail and a sublime mastery of tone, Jose Rizal renders the most vivid portrait of a decaying colonial society. He also offers a bracing treatise on anti-colonial revolution, one whose lessons are sadly left unheeded by passionate warriors of his time and of ours.

Jose Bernard Capino
English
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The Logic of Logistics: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications for Logistics Management
David Simchi-Levi, Xin Chen & Julien Bramel

This book is a joint work with my PhD thesis supervisor Professor David Simchi-Levi and one of his former PhD students. By selecting this book, I would like to express my deep appreciation for his constant support for my academic career.

Xin Chen
Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering
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Principles of Polymerization
George Odian

An excellent book on polymer chemistry.

Jianjun Cheng
Materials Science & Engineering
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Status Anxiety
Alain de Botton

In addition to being an obvious meditation on the spiritual perils of seeking institutional advancement, Alain de Botton’s Status Anxiety is a lucid, original, and funny investigation of the human search for happiness. De Botton’s gently stoic essays show that sometimes great learning can be worn lightly.

Eleanor Courtemanche
English
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The Thalamus
E. G. Jones

This book served as initial inspiration to begin experimentation in this region of the brain. I was fascinated by the anatomy, early physiology, and potentially important role of this brain region in behavior and numerous pathophysiological conditions.

Charles Leroy Cox
Pharmacology, Molecular & Integrated Physiology
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Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard P. Feynman

I am fascinated by discovery and feel that intellectual curiosity, especially of the abstract kind, is the greatest kind of playfulness imaginable. And what greater magician of the mind, with so direct an impact on our understanding of the world, than Richard Feynman.

Harry Dankowicz
Mechanical Science & Engineering
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Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Edward R. Tufte

Tufte demonstrates the difference between the types of graphs and presentations that we can generate so easily, and those we should aspire to. His work is a guide to effectively communicating through visual displays of information, and I refer back to it often.

Stephanie Davidson
Law
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The Boy Who Ate Words
Thierry Dedieu

This book reminds me of my sons who have propelled me into a journey of awe, self-reflection, and intellectual pursuit unlike anything I could have imagined. I hope this book encourages others to ‘offer up a word made of paper’ and to look at the world ‘through a forest of question marks.’

Laura Segebart DeThorne
Speech & Hearing Science
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3-D Radiative Transfer in Cloudy Atmospheres
Alexander Marshak & Anthony Davis

One-dimensional radiative transfer is assumed in all environmental prediction models and satellite remote sensing. This book reminds us that this is a terrible assumption. Improved predictions of weather and climate and improved measurements of surface and atmospheric properties will ultimately require a three-dimensional treatment of radiative transfer.

Larry Di Girolamo
Atmospheric Sciences
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How the Page Matters
Bonnie Mak

Bonnie Mak examines the rich genealogy of the page, tracing the development of its communicative interface from the scrolls of antiquity, through the manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the printed books of the early modern period, to the digital resources of today. Mak explores how the tangled relationship between the materiality and meaning influence the ways in which knowledge is formulated and transmitted through time. Transcending boundaries of history and language, How the Page Matters connects technology with tradition using approaches from architectural, medieval, and new media studies.

J. Stephen Downie
Graduate School of Library & Information Science
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Seeds and More Seeds
Millicent Selsam

Seeds and More Seeds combines beautiful illustrations with accurate biological information and a fictional narrative about a boy who experiments to see if a stone will grow. My father purchased this book for me in 1959. Its genre-bending approach has inspired my writing and research ever since.

Mark Dressman
Curriculum & Instruction
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Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States
Kenneth T. Jackson

This book was significant to my dissertaion research.  I continue to use it in my teaching and research, as it is one of the most comprehensive, insightful and readable books on the history of U.S. suburbanization.

Mary M. Edwards
Urban & Regional Planning
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The Early Universe
Edward W. Kolb & Michael S. Turner

As a graduate student I was fortunate to learn cosmology from this book, and from its authors as well as my advisor David Schramm.  I was amazed by the exuberance that springs from every page, and the intuitive pedagogy.  This approach has had a lasting impact on my research and teaching.

Brian David Fields
Astronomy & Physics
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Britain and the Cold War: 1945 as Geopolitical Transition
Peter J. Taylor

Professor Peter Taylor continues to be a true inspiration to me. His lectures and mentorship stimulated my interest in political geography and paved my way to graduate school. Britain and the Cold War is a wonderful illustration of how complex theory can be the basis for clear prose that provides insight into real and meaningful historic events.

Colin Flint
Geography
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Community in Rural America
Kenneth Wilkinson

This book was instrumental in shaping my outlook on the importance of interactions among people as they navigate life in a changing environment and society.

Courtney G. Flint
Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
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Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma (aka A Harrowing Tale of WWII)
George MacDonald Fraser

The author of the uproarious Flashman novels here provides a rare private’s view of war, in a short memoir of his service in the British infantry in south Asia near the end of WWII. UIUC has only one copy, which isn’t enough for this compelling reminder of what a great debt we all owe veterans.

Brian J. Gaines
Political Science & Institute of Government & Public Affairs
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Zen Shorts
Jon J. Muth

I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer while awaiting news on my tenure decision.  I am still undergoing treatment.  During this extraordinary period of grace and growth, I have come to appreciate gentleness and compassion more than ever.  The main character in this book, Stillwater the panda, demonstrates those qualities lovingly.

Rebecca Ginsburg
Landscape Architecture
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Parable of the Sower
Octavia Butler

Parable of the Sower is simultaneously an analysis of race, gender, environmental and economic abuse and a compelling science fiction narrative of a near-future dystopia. It demands justice in the face of pessimism.

Ryan Griffis
Art & Design
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Advances in the Neuroscience of Addiction
Cynthia M. Kuhn & George F. Koob

This book provides an overview of the latest research that is aimed at trying to uncover the biological mechanisms of one of our society’s greatest public health problems – drug addiction and its associated consequences.

Joshua M. Gulley
Psychology
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Building Economic Justice: The Bishops’ Pastoral Letter and Tools for Action
National Conference of Catholic Bishops

My decision to become an economist was due, in no small part, to reading this Pastoral Letter as an undergraduate.  While I may no longer agree with all its policy recommendations, this Letter’s articulation of Catholic social teaching continues to guide the research questions I pursue today.

Craig Gundersen
Agricultural & Consumer Economics
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This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation
Gloria Anzalda

Gloria Anzaldua has been by my side (through her books) since I was in college.  Over the years, her prose has given me the strength and courage to embrace the tensions in my own work and life. This book reminds me that I am part of a movement of decolonization in academia and solidarity with others.

Rochelle Gutiérrez
Curriculum & Instruction
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The Venture of Islam
Marshall G. S. Hodgson

With its profound analysis of not only political and economic history, but intellectual debates, cultural production, spiritual perspectives, and social life, all in relation to simultaneous developments in other great civilizations, this book captured my imagination in graduate school, and remains unparalleled among histories of Islamic civilization.

Valerie J. Hoffman
Religion
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3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated
Donald Knuth

This book by renowned computer scientist Donald Knuth shows that excellence in science and engineering need not be mutually exclusive with faith, and that faith need not be unthinking, through a thorough and learned exposition on a stochastic sample of the Protestant Bible.

Yih-Chun Hu
Electrical & Computer Engineering
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Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices & Priorities of a Winning Life
Tony Dungy

Throughout my academic career, there have been pressures and temptations to abandon those things that I hold most dear. Quiet Strength reminds me that my identity lies not in accolades or accomplishments, but in the realization that in Christ, I am a new creation.

Kevin E. Jackson
Accountancy
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The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race
Priscilla J. McMillan

An illuminating work by an inspiring author, this book is a grim reminder of how the conduct of science and of scientists is never free from the forces of political interest and the context of history.

Timothy Johnson
Finance
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The Venice Charter Revisited: Modernism and Conservation in the Postwar World
Mathew Hardy

Mathew Hardy’s book discusses how new building design should be undertaken in historic sites across the world.

Paul Kapp
Architecture
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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond

I admire how Jared Diamond presents environmental science, conservation of natural resources, and sustainability in ways that make these subjects important for everyone.

Angela D. Kent
Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
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I am not Stiller
Max Frisch

The English translation of a classic novel by the noted Swiss author that continues to exemplify the challenges of achieving personal and professional identity in a post-modern world.

K. Peter Kuchinke
Education Policy, Organization & Leadership
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The Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Haruki Murakami

My wife introduced me to this book to improve my Japanese when I was studying in Japan. Instead, through Murakami’s observations, it touched the urban alienation feeling deep inside me, and illustrated how an isolated protagonist can still manage to have a cheerful outlook on life.

Wen-Tso Liu
Civil & Environmental Engineering
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Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood
Jay MacLeod

As a graduate student, I read this powerful ethnography for the first time. Through the voices of black and white teenagers growing up in a housing project, MacLeod explores the tension between human agency and the social structure in the production of inequality. Their stories continue to influence my work on the role of race and poverty in shaping educational and occupational opportunities and success.

Christy L. Lleras
Human & Community Development
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Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen

Austen’s use of the English language is sublime; and her satire exquisite.

Lisa J. Lucero
Anthropology
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Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis
Renato Rosaldo

Authored by one of the few Mexican Americans in the social sciences and the humanities, Culture and Truth is one of the best academic books published in the late-twentieth century.  I can’t think of another scholarly contribution that re-examines an important discipline (anthropology) by constructively reminding its practitioners of their responsibility to help create a more inclusive world, both within the academy and beyond.

Alejandro Lugo
Anthropology & Latina/Latino Studies
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Smoothing Spline ANOVA Models
Chong Gu

This book, written by my thesis advisor, provides a systematic account of the nonparametric functional estimation on generic domains using the penalized likelihood method. The book has fundamental impact on my research.

Ping Ma
Statistics
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The History and Geography of Human Genes
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi & Alberto Piazza

This volume is the foundation for my field of research – Molecular Anthropology.  The field uses genetic patterns, in an interdisciplinary context, to infer human population history.  This book is often my first point of reference when addressing a question in my field of research.

Ripan S. Malhi
Anthropology
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An Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra
Sir William Huggins

Sir William Huggins was the first to take photographic stellar spectra, and was a pioneer in combining laboratory and astronomical spectroscopy of atoms.  This book was an inspiration for my research program combining laboratory and astronomical spectroscopy of molecules.  As Huggins said, ‘the observatory became a meeting-place where terrestrial chemistry was brought into direct touch with celestial chemistry.’

Benjamin J. McCall
Chemistry & Astronomy
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Gendered by Design? Information Technology and Office Systems
Eileen Green, Jenny Owen & Den Pain (eds.)

This is one of the few books that really shows how social theory and information technology design can inform each other successfully. It’s an under-appreciated classic.

Jerome Patrick McDonough
Graduate School of Library & Information Science
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The Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

My appreciation for nature is partly inspired by this book.

Ray R. Ming
Plant Biology
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Satires
Juvenal

Written around the second century AD, Juvenal’s Satires savages Rome’s elite, taking on hypocrites, liars, crooks, and even drinkers of toad’s blood. Surrounded by such a wide array of indecency, “[i]t is hard not to write satire,” opines Juvenal.  I chose this wonderful book for several reasons.  Juvenal reminds us that life should be guided by honesty and experienced with wit.  He combines his scalding humor with deep insights about the importance of remaining true to personal convictions, even in the face of adversity.  Finally, Juvenal is a startlingly beautiful writer.

Heather Hyde Minor
Architecture
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Dialogic Imagination
M. M. Bakhtin

This book helped me think of possibilities in simultaneity, heteroglossia and fragmentation as I worked in the chaos and contradiction of my fieldsite in postwar el Salvador.

Ellen Moodie
Anthropology
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Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller
William S. Saunders

As a college student, I discovered this book in the gift shop at Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwater. I found these photographs to be both inspiring and challenging. The book has been on my shelf since then and continues to serve as an inspiration.

Scott Charles Murray
Architecture
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The Life of the Mind
Hannah Arendt

A beautifully written philosophical exposition of the thinking process which explores the paradox that thinking is at once of the world and yet somehow beyond it.  Replicating the tripartite structure of Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy, Arendt seeks to render that philosophy relevant to a postmetaphysical age.  My book on judgment seeks to complete the last part of Arendt’s book, entitled Judging, which Arendt herself did not live to finish.

Hina Nazar
English
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Max Havelaar, or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company
Multatuli

Max Havelaar was written by Multatuli, alias of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887) who worked in the Dutch Indies as an official for the Dutch colonial government. After being dismissed, he wrote Max Havelaar (1960), an innovative and unconventional novel highly critical of colonial abuse in the Indies. The book caused a major international stir, and was often mentioned in tandem with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).  Today the novel is mostly forgotten, but nevertheless still a good read!

Carl Niekerk
Germanic Languages & Literatures
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Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life
Gerald H. Pollack

This was a fun little read a few years ago. The book promoted a new way of thinking about cells, their mechanical structure, and how they might interact with ultrasound.

Michael L. Oelze
Electrical & Computer Engineering
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The Silmarillion
J. R. R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion is an epic and vivid story of substories. It feels new on every reread and it is simply a masterpiece.

Luke Olsen
Computer Science
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Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition
Anne Frank

Some years ago, I spent many days pouring over Anne Frank’s diary. I read both sides of the book, reading her first and later versions of daily experiences and events. She taught me a bit of what it means to learn from experience if one has the patience and courage to hold on to thoughts and feelings and words to re-explore them anew. To this day, Anne Frank’s straightforward honesty and freshness of thinking affect me.

Teresa Ann Ostler
School of Social Work
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot

I selected this book because it exposes the power relations of research and asserts our responsibility as scholars to acknowledge and compensate the people who give their stories and their bodies so that ‘our’ research can progress.

Ramona Faith Oswald
Human & Community Development
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In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America
Michael B. Katz

The first book I read in my doctoral program. This book is a great example of a coherent narrative that portrays how a society responded to the economic and social problems of the poor and needy.

Jung Min Park
School of Social Work
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Freedom From the Known
J. Krishnamurti

Life, academic or otherwise, has psychological trappings such as competitiveness, ego, greed, insecurity, jealousy, dogma, etc., leading to the psychological mess that our society has become. Krishnamurti, a philosopher of our times, lays down in this book a new outlook towards life that invites one to start afresh, to live a life of choice-less awareness, where one sees everything without prejudice, with no self-centered purpose, but with only pure joy, as one may watch a sunset. This insight has helped me throughout my life and my career.

Madhusudan Parthasarathy
Computer Science
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The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
Timothy Gowers (ed.)

This is ‘an essential reference for every mathematician,’ and I dare say, every scientist and engineer.

Manoj M. Prabhakaran
Computer Science
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New Developments in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (Frontiers of Statistics)
Jianqing Fan, Xihong Lin & Jun S. Liu (eds.)

This editing book contains many important topics on Biostatistics such as analysis of survival and longitudinal data, epidemiology and bioinformatics. One of the chapters is written by Annie Qu and her co-authors.

Peiyong (Annie) Qu
Statistics
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A Theory of Psychological Reactance
Brehm, J. W.

This book is especially meaningful to me because Brehm provides a framework for why individuals often resist persuasive messages. His theory has resulted in an extensive line of research for myself as well as many others across a range of disciplines. Psychological reactance theory offers researchers and practitioners alike with a practical framework to use when designing persuasive messages.

Brian L. Quick
Communication
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Cell Movements
Dennis Bray

This book introduced me to cell motility, now one of my main research interests.

Christopher Rao
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
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The Libretti of Mozart’s Completed Operas
Nico Castel

As a young professional I had the rare opportunity to study with Nico once a week for several years while he was compiling these valuable editions. It is a pleasure to reread his lessons, and see his knowledge passed on to my students in these books.  I aspire to teach as he did, with skill, enthusiasm, and joy.

Yvonne Gonzales Redman
School of Music
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Introduction to Mathematical Logic
Alonzo Church

The book is a classic exposition of mathematical logic at mid-century. But I select it for its 68 page introduction, a famous exquisitely graceful and erudite exposition of foundational concepts. Anyone who would understand fundamental issues in formalizing information and knowledge (in order to, perhaps, better support digital representation and processing) cannot do better than start here, and enjoy a rare intellectual treat.

Allen H. Renear
Graduate School of Library & Information Science
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Letter to an Imaginary Friend: Parts I-IV
Thomas McGrath

I read this poem in a university library that was my hide-out when ditching class in high school. It sent me tumbling through worlds of ideas and connections. I finished reading it, immediately decided to become a scientist, and dropped out of high school.

Charles Roseman
Anthropology
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Stuck Rubber Baby
Howard Cruse

This book is a terrific example of layering, both in terms of the visual composition and the story line.

Spencer Wolld Schaffner
English
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China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia
Peter Perdue

A master piece of historical research based on multilingual archives, cross-disciplinary theories, and insightful analysis. This book contributes tremendously not only to the field of Chinese history, but also to the general fields of borderland studies, transnational history, empire studies, military history, and Euroasian history.

邵丹
Dan Shao
East Asian Languages & Cultures
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The Yearbook of International Organizations
Union of International Associations

In the 3rd year of graduate school I went to my university library to find a data set that was reference by another author. I sat on the floor of the library pouring over the volumes of this book for hours. The archival data in this collection of volumes was the basis for my dissertation and many subsequent publications. Thus, it seemed suitable to recognize the work with this honor.

Michelle Shumate
Communication
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The Conquest of Happiness
Bertrand Russell

This timeless classic shaped my view of life as a teenager.  Written in ~1930, it presents an almost logical approach to understanding happiness and unhappiness, and even if the ‘claims’ are likely to dawn upon us naturally as we age, their clear presentation makes for a pleasant reading at any age.

Saurabh Sinha
Computer Science
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The Cross of Christ
John R. W. Stott

This remarkable book by John R. W. Stott provides a powerful, thoughtful yet heartfelt explanation of the cross of Christ, which is the core of my faith and life.

Junho Song
Civil & Environmental Engineering
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Jacob the Baker: Gentle Wisdom For a Complicated World
Noah BenShea

This book was given to me when I started on my journey to understand life. The insights provided have helped me numerous times along the way.

Jacob J. Sosnoff
Kinesiology & Community Health
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Recognizing European Modernities: A Montage of the Present
Allan Pred

Recognizing European Modernities helped me discover Sweden’s complex relationships to its own cultural geography, including the ways in which architecture and urban planning inform the rise of its democratic welfare state, functionalist modernism, and engagment of global capitalism. This book plate is also a personal dedication in memoriam to Allan Pred, advisor, mentor, and friend.

Anna Westerståhl Stenport
Germanic Languages & Literatures
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Einstein’s Enigma or Black Holes in my Bubble Bath
C. V. Vishveshwara

A poetic, zesty, and sensitive voyage through blackhole physics, the story of gravitation, antiquity, and fantasy. A personal journey that I have watched unfold over decades in which the author has explored and given to the world as a scientist, a writer, an educator, a cartoonist, a planetarium director and a lover-of-life, all brought together in this one book. The author happens to be my hero, my dear friend, and my father.

Smitha Vishveshwara
Physics
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The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James Watson

Outstanding book describing one of the greatest discoveries in science.

Yingxiao Wang
Bioengineering
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Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard P. Feynman

I only recently read this book, but Feynman’s approach to research, teaching, and life is truly inspiring.

Duane G. Watson
Psychology
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray provides a useful reminder that actions often have long lasting consequences.  As a professor, I have the opportunity to have a positive influence on my students – to help shape their thinking for many years to come – and I feel honored to be entrusted with this great responsibility.

Scott James Weisbenner
Finance
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William Wayne Justice: A Judicial Biography
Frank R. Kemere

I clerked for Judge Justice. He continues to inspire me. His profoundly humanist approach to the law led to statewide school desegration, the education of undocumented alien children, and major prison reform for both adults and juveniles. In the words of one of his favorite judges, ‘Judge Justice was a fine American.

Lesley M. Wexler
Law
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Arrowsmith
Sinclair Lewis

I hated reading as a child – but my dad begged me for years to read this wonderful book. I am glad I finally listened to him for once. In brief, it is about a young scientist discovering the beauty of scientific exploration. But it means so much more to me. How  my dad knew this book would fascinate me to the extent it did will always amaze me.

Kenneth Wilund
Kinesiology & Community Health
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Changing Poverty, Changing Policies
Maria Cancian & Sheldon Danziger

This is a fascinating book that highlights the comprehensive aspects of changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies. It inspired me to rethink poverty and advocate promising strategies and social policies that promote economic advancement for low-income families. Dr. Maria Cancian has been a great inspiration and wonderful mentor who has enlightened my academic profession in so many ways.  Moreover, she has been an amazing role model for me to emulate in my teaching and research.

Chi-Fang Wu
School of Social Work
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Let the Children Come Along the Virtuous Way
Gary Ezzo & Anne Marie Ezzo

This book has taught me how to be a good teacher/mentor/parent. One of the secrets I have learned is on how to raise a complete person, not just skillful or capable.

Yang Xiang
Molecular & Integrative Physiology
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Bioinformatics
Andrzej Polanski & Marek Kimmel

I have used this book for teaching for 3 years. Its scope covers both the theory and the applications of bioinfomratis quite well.

Sheng Zhong
Bioengineering
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