Browse or jump to the faculty member’s last name:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Guns, Gems and Steel
Jared Diamond
Andrew G. Alleyne
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
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Identification and Control of Sheet and Film Processes: Advances in Industrial Control Series
Andrew P. Featherstone, Jeremy G. VanAntwerp, and Richard D. Braatz
This is the definitive text on the control of sheet and film processes. Products of these processes include paper, bumper stickers, plastic bags, windshield safety glass, and sheet metal. The text is based mostly on the research of my first two graduate students.
Richard D. Braatz
Chemical Engineering
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Introduction to Fourier Optics
Joseph W. Goodman
Goodman’s Fourier Optics marks the transition of optics from physical to information science. This is the most important book in my field.
David Brady
Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Catch-22
Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is a masterpiece of satirical humor. I’ve read many other pieces of good fiction, but none compare as well to Catch-22. It is, by far, my favorite book.
Don Bullock
Crop Sciences
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Visual Explanations
Edward R. Tufte
Colleen Busbell
School of Art & Design
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Fundamental Neuroscience
Michael J. Zigmond, Floyd E. Bloom, Story C. Landis, Larry R. Squire (eds.)
I chose Fundamental Neuroscience because it is one of the best textbooks in the field.
Akira Chiba
Cell and Structural Biology
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Einstein’s Dreams
Alan Lightman
It is the book that most moved me during my time at UIUC. Here is a book that takes an incredibly difficult topic—the nature of time and how Einstein might have conceived of it—a nd creates a beautifully written journey through the various possibilities. The journey is basically a series of variations on a theme, as beautifully crafted as any by Bach or Rachmaninoff, that illuminate as well as they entertain. Those of us who are simultaneously scientists and educators all aspire to be able to do exactly that; never have I seen it done better.
Neal J. Cohen
Psychology, Beckman Institute, and Neuroscience Program
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The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson (ed. R. W. Franklin)
Emily Dickinson is the greatest poet in U. S. History, though she was unpublished during her lifetime. The two volume Manuscript Books show exactly how she left her poems—how she self-published them. For this reason, The Manuscript Books are an indispensable resource for scholars.
Tim Dean
English
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The Chicano Political Experience: Three Perspectives
F. Chris Garcia and Rudolph O. de la Garza
The Chicano Political Experience: Three Perspectives was the first step in the rigorous study of Latino politics. It offers both theoretical insights and empirical rigor. All scholarly analysis of Latino politics that have been published since 1977 (including my own work) owe it a debt of gratitude.
Louis DeSipio
Political Science
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Designing Evaluations of Educational and Social Programs
L. J. Cronbach
Lee Cronbach is a remarkable scholar and a great mentor to me. This book has greatly influenced my practice.
Lizanne DeStefano
Educational Psychology
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The Development, Nutrition, and Management of the Young Calf
Carl L. Davis and James K. Drackley
I selected this book because of the pride in, and gratitude to, the University of Illinois for providing the intellectual environment to pursue a scholarly task such as represented by this book. In addition, I feel that it will provide additional recognition for my co-author, Professor Emeritus Carl L. Davis. Dr. Davis has been a friend and mentor to me in my initial decade at the U of I, and I owe him a large debt of gratitude.
James K. Drackley
Animal Sciences
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Paul, The Apostle of the Heart, Set Free
F. F. Bruce
The summer that I began my graduate study was one of particular stress. Packing up a family, renting our house and driving across country to the University of Southern California for one year was taking its toll on me. Shortly after arriving and beginning study, I discovered this book, and found it refreshing to my soul and mind. It is a story of a man who turns his life 180 degrees around in the opposite direction and runs a race that benefits his entire person for eternity.
Michael E. Ewald
School of Music
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Open Channel Hydraulics
Ven Te Chow
As an undergraduate water resources engineering student in Santa Fe, Argentina, we used this book as a textbook. The book author, the late Professor Ven Te Chow, played a major role in developing the field of water resources engineering, including hydrology and hydraulics, both nationally and internationally. As a student, I never imagined that one day I would become a professor at the University of Illinois, where Dr. Chow had taught and done research.
Marcelo H. Garcia
Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Antiguedades de México, basadas en la recopilanción de Lord Kingsborough
José Corona-Nuñez (editor)
Based on the 1831 publication of indigenous Mexican painted ‘books’ by Lord Kingsborough, this 4-volume set proved invaluable to my doctoral research and subsequent book on Aztec historical legends. The second volume is now missing, and I would be pleased to see the set made whole again by its replacement.
Susan D. Gillespie
Anthropology
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Handbook of Research on Teaching (4 th ed.)
V. Richardson
This extensive volume captures and synthesizes the most significant research that has been completed within the field of education. It is the first time in nearly three decades that chapters have been devoted to the specific subject matter areas that encompass all realms of educational research. The text is personally meaningful because I had the honor of being invited to write the chapter that reviewed the current research on physical education. It is a celebration of the accomplishments of many investigators and of how far the field has progressed within the past two decades.
Kim C. Graber
Kinesiology
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Illustrated Dictionary of Mycology
M. Ulloa and R. Hanlin
I selected this book because of its content that includes many illustrations. I think this book will stimulate the minds of people that have not been exposed to this kind of diversity and beauty in nature. The illustrations alone should stimulate the imagination of most people.
Glen Hartman
Crop Sciences
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To Read or Not to Read: Answers to all your Questions about Dyslexia
Daphne M. Hurford
Our son, Dale, has dyslexia. I selected this book in honor of him and to recognize the hard work he has done to learn to read.
Brent J. Heuser
Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering
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The Structures of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
Lillian Hoddeson
History
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Fonetica Historica Vasca
Luis Michelena
Jose Ignacio Hualde
Spanish, Italian & Portuguese
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Close to Home adds new information useful for understanding the literate and oral language competence of Mexican immigrants. I found his discussion of multiple literacies that he identified within the Mexican immigrant community particularly interesting.
Robert Jiminez
Curriculum and Instruction
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Corporate Creativity
Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern
Corporate Creativity provides a fascinating look at creative acts in the workplace and documents how they occurred and what impact they had on the work environment. The book is very readable and does a great job of synthesizing six common elements that support creative activity in the workplace.
Scott D. Johnson
Human Resource Education
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Advice to a Young Scientist
P. B. Medawar
Laxmikant V. Kale
Computer Science
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Sacred Spaces and Public Quarrels: African Cultural and Economic Landscapes
Ezekiel Kalipeni and Paul T. Zeleza
It contributed greatly to my tenure process as I am one of the editors.
Ezekiel Kalipeni
Geography
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Italian Folktales
Italo Galvino
I read stories from Italo Calvino’s Italian Folktales to our daughters often during my probationary period. Through their questions and wonders about these tales, we discussed the queries about the human condition that anthropologists dwell upon. Our conversations have given anthropology an added significance to me.
William F. Kelleher
Anthropology
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Insights in Decision Making
R. Hogarth (ed.)
This book was the product of a memorial conference in honor of Hillel Einhorn, who was my mentor and role model.
Don Kleinmuntz
Business Administration
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Jim Leedy: Artist Across Boundaries
Matthew Kangas
I chose the Jim Leedy book for a number of reasons. For example, Jim is an interdisciplinary artist who has been a prolific and significant contributor to the ceramic arts movement of the latter part of the 20th century. He is a gifted teacher, lecturer, artist, gallery owner and promoter of the ceramic arts. He has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute for approximately thirty years. His influence is international, and his strength as an artist in his 70s is reaching a zenith. I also wanted to choose a book that was about a living artist. I had originally thought about The Grapes of Wrath, my all-time favorite book, or a book about Jackson Pollock, my all-time favorite artist, but I wanted something in my field, by someone who inspires me that is still active/alive, and doing it/living it.
Ron Kovatch
School of Art and Design
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Leadership in Administration
Philip Selznick
Leadership in Administration has affected how I think about organizations more than any other single work. Most of my research has drawn heavily upon ideas that were first developed in this book, and I also use it in my teaching. I highly recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in organizations and management.
Matthew Kraatz
Business Administration
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All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot
This book was the first in a series of four autobiographical books written by James Herriot, a British, nonfiction writer (pen name for James Alfred Wright). This book and the three volumes which followed chronicled the daily life of a country veterinarian in rural Yorkshire at the beginning of World War II. The appeal of this book for me is its humorous blend of sadness and joy used to describe family and occupational endeavors while continually celebrating the love of life.
Mark S. Kuhlenschmidt
Veterinary Pathobiology
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Events and Plurality: The Jerusalem Lectures
Fred Landman
Landman is a semanticist I respect very much, and this book relates very directly to my own research on event-based approaches to the semantics of plurality. Landman was working on this book during my research leave in Israel in the fall of 1995.
Peter Lasersohn
Linguistics
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Night
Elie Wiesel
Michael H. Leroy
Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations
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The Theory of Island Biogeography
Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson
MacArthur and Wilson’s book on island biogeography was an inspiring read for me in the spring of 1974. Although I was working at the time on an archaeological problem that was far removed from the topic of this book, their approach was both enlightening and relevant. It made me view research problem formulation, the calculus and the interpretive value of approximate answers in a new light. To a certain extent, I am still profiting from and applying daily what I learned from reading it. Most of the book reflects the brilliance of the principal author, Robert H. MacArthur, who died of leukemia in his early 40s.
Barry Lewis
Anthropology
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Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture
Carl E. Schorske
A farmer’s book by my former dissertation advisor; a classic of modern historical writing.
Harry Liebersohn
History
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Bioinorganic Chemistry
Ivano Bertini, Henry B. Gray, Stephen J. Lippard, and Joan S. Valentine
This book, written by leading experts in my research field, was published in 1994, the same year as the start of my career at the University of Illinois. Three of the four authors made significant differences in my scientific career (Valentine as my PhD advisor, Gray as my postdoctoral advisor, and Bertini as a long-time mentor/collaborator).
Yi Lu
Chemistry
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Montaigne, Quelques Anciens et l’écriture des Essais
D. Coleman
I chose Montaigne because he is the best representative of the flowering of French humanism during and after the religious wars in 16th century Europe. He addressed the issues of pluralism, tolerance and the challenge of having individuals and groups with various mores and opinions live together within the same society, all issues that are quite prominent in our world today. I believe Montaigne, unlike many of his contemporaries, still speaks to many students because of the very personal and engaging way in which he wrote his reflections on his own experience and on human nature. Montaigne stood on the threshold of modernity; his mediations on politics, the clash of cultures, the rise of individualism, the ambitions and limits of knowledge and the complexities of the human experience remain an invaluable guide. His legacy is worth preserving as an essential part of a liberal education.
Jean-Philippe Mathy
French
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The Power Elite
C. Wright Mills
The final third of The Power Elite may be the finest social criticism ever written by an American. The astounding insights into the contradictions and bankruptcy of American social and political life could have been written this morning, they still ring so true. They guide all of my own research, teaching and activism.
Robert W. McChesney
Institute of Communications Research
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Radiative Processes in Astrophysics
George B. Rybicki and Alan P. Lightman
I learned about radiative transfer, a fundamental physical process in astronomy, from this book in graduate school at UC-Berkeley. I still refer to it as a professional astronomer.
Margaret Meixner
Astronomy
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Pain and Suffering
William K. Livingston
This is the semi-autobiography of one of the pioneer clinician-scientists in my field, pain research. It is a striking example of science at its best: astute clinical observations leading to controlled experiments leading back to new clinical treatments. Livingston was an engaging writer, and his conception of pain was far ahead of his time.
Jeff Mogil
Psychology
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Bondmen and Rebels
David Barry Gaspar
Through its history of colonial slave revolt in Antigua, my country of origin, this book provides a clear picture of the terms of Caribbean cultural identity. It thus serves to define and describe the pride I take in being a West Indian.
Adlai Murdoch
French
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Message Effects Research: Principles of Design and Analysis
Sally Jackson
Much communication research aims at assessing general claims about message effects. This book offers important insights into recurring issues in the design and analysis of experiments concerning such effects, housing its treatment within a larger frame that emphasizes identification of the argumentative burdens associated with research claims.
Daniel J. O’Keefe
Speech Communication
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Journey With Children: The Autobiography of a Teacher
Frances Pockman Hawkins
Frances Pockman Hawkins and her husband, David have written movingly of their commitment to children and teaching. In this wonderful book she tells us of her lifelong work with children in poverty and involvement as a teacher in issues of social justice. Through her writings, she has inspired my own teaching and research and I have patterned much of my work, teaching science to young children, after her.
Margery Osborne
Curriculum and Instruction
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The Morphology of Chinese: A Linguistic and Cognitive Approach
Jerome L. Packard
I selected this book because it best characterizes who I am as a person and a scholar.
Jerome Packard
East Asian Languages and Cultures
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History and Class Consciousness
Georg Lukacs
This was the first work of critical theory which I read as a junior in college, and my excitement in reading it convinced me that I wanted to become a social theorist. I was particularly affected by Lukacs’ critical Marxist exegeses of everyday life words and ideas in capitalist society. It was unlike any book I had ever read either in sociology or philosophy, and had a great impact on my thinking for this reason, and on the direction of my future studies.
Andrea L. Press
Institute of Communication Research, Speech Communication, Women’s Studies and Sociology
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Grove Karl Gilbert: A Great Engine of Research
Stephen J. Pyne
Grove Karl Gilbert was a brilliant geographer, geologist and conservationist who has been hailed as the “Father of Modern Geomorphology.” In heroic prose, Stephen J. Pyne details the life, talents and remarkable accomplishments of this revered scientist. Gilbert’s example of how to combine multiple conceptual perspectives within an integrated investigative framework to understand the complexity of earth-surface systems endures as a benchmark of excellence for geomorphological research.
Bruce Rhoads
Geography
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Single-Channel Recording (second edition)
Bert Sakmann and Erwin Neher
Ion channels are proteins found in all living cells. They open and close, enabling tiny electrical currents to flow into and out of cells. Sakmann and Neher won the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of a technique which can record these tiny currents passing through a single ion channel. The technique revolutionized the field and one part of my work is dedicated to extending this technique. Specifically, we are trying to measure not just electrical properties of single ion channels, but to measure shape changes within single ion channel as it passes the electrical currents.
Paul Selvin
Physics and Biophysics Center
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Pipelined Adaptive Digital Filters
Naresh Shanbhag and Keshab K. Parhi
This research monograph describes the technique of relaxed look-ahead pipelining of adaptive digital filters. This technique breaks the wall between algorithm and architecture design by seamlessly integrating issues in both domains thereby enabling the design of high-speed equalizers for communication systems. This book achieves the noble goal of bridging the gap between theory and practice.
Naresh Shanbhag
Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Opinions and Personality
M. Brewster Smith, Jerome S. Bruner, and Robert W. White
Opinions and Personality was one of the first publications to kindle my interest in public opinion and individual motivation. It is a classic volume, and I cite it in virtually everything I publish. Smith, Bruner, and White were the first to pose the critical question, ‘Of what use to a man are his opinions?’ This query enriched the study of attitudes and persuasion for decades to come.
Sharon Shavitt
Department of Advertising
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Teaching/Discipline: A Positive Approach for Educational Development
Clifford K. Madsen and Charles H. Madsen
Written by my PhD advisor, dear friend, and mentor, Clifford Madsen, this book represents a clear and humanitarian view on the processes of teaching, learning, and applications to life. It should be read by teachers, parents, students, administrators. The book represents LIFE LESSONS.
Deborah A. Sheldon
School of Music
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Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
Richard P. Feynman
The book was recommended to me by one of my professors during my PhD program, and it had a profound influence on my perspective on research and academia.
Marjorie K. Shelley
Accountancy
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The History of Deaf People: A Source Book
Per Eriksson
I selected The History of Deaf People to commemorate my promotion to Associate Professor. I am the hearing daughter of deaf parents. I grew up in the deaf community. My goal is to raise the “hearing world’s” awareness of this culture and their (sign) language through my scholarship, my teaching, and my commitment to improving the education of deaf children living in the United States.
Jenny L. Singleton
Educational Psychology
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The Emergence of Bacterial Genetics
Thomas D. Brock
Bacterial genetics is the foundation of modern molecular biology that has generated and will generate many of the medical breakthroughs that we hear about everyday. This is a nicely written and very readable account of the history of bacterial genetics. It is enjoyable for both ‘new’ and ‘ seasoned’ molecular biologists, but it is also accessible to a more general audience.
Jim Slauch
Microbiology
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Indian Country, God’s Country: Native Americans and the National Parks
Philip Burnham
The national parks of the U.S. are traditionally viewed as some idealized and sacred landscape, unsullied by humans, and isolated as “vignettes of primitive America.” The imprint of Native Americans is often minimized or completely erased to further the Anglo myth of pristinity. With Indian Country, God’s Country, Philip Burnham provides insight to the plurality of meanings represented by landscapes of the national parks and, in doing so, forces us to reconsider the meaning of our national parks within an historical context that recognizes Native American cultures and their homeland.
William Stewart
Department of Leisure Studies
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Geometric Measure Theory: A Beginner’s Guide
Frank Morgan
Geometric Measure Theory is a beautiful framework for proving the existence of optimal geometries like least-area bubble clusters. Unfortunately, the standard reference on GMT, by its inventor Federer, is unreadable. Frank Morgan’s wonderful book finally makes GMT accessible; the third edition incorporates late-breaking news on the latest results.
John M. Sullivan
Mathematics
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Culture and Imperialism
Edward W. Said
I choose Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism, a model of cultural and textual analysis. This book compels us to rethink the problem of cultural representation. In it, Said continues his groundbreaking work—begun in Orientalism, the World, the Text, and the Critic, and the Question of Palestine—impressing upon intellectuals the need to represent the under-represented, to work for social change, and to expose the constraints inscribed in art, culture, and scholarship by authority and power.
Zohreh T. Sullivan
English
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Majestic Lights
Robert H. Eather
This book describes the Aurora, a subject of my research, in science, history, and the arts. I’ve been among the “privileged few to see the mystic luminaries of the arctic and antarctic skies. – there is no doubt that the aurora is the most spectacular and awe-inspiring of nature’s phenomena.” Bob Eather is a long-time friend and colleague.
Gary R. Swenson
Electrical & Computer Engineering
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Music, Modernity and the Global Imagination: South Africa and the West
Veit Erlmann
Thomas Turino
School of Music
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Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas Kuhn
Numerous books, ranging from Edward Said’s Orientalism to the poetry of Mohammad Iqbal, would have qualified for this selection. Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn, however, holds the distinction of most dramatically changing my perception of an exercise that I have been closely associated with (process of scientific discovery) than any other.
Rizwan Uddin
Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering
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Barriers to Riches
S. Parente and E. C. Prescott
This is an excellent book about an important problem: Why do some countries have very high standards of living while others do not? The book (i) proposes a clear and simple theory; and (ii) shows how the theory can be used in examine competing hypotheses.
Anne Villamil
Economics
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Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years
Chronicle and Commentary by David Vaugh, Edited by Melissa Harris
Merce Cunningham was my teacher for many years. His work has had a significant impact on me as an artist and teacher. The work of Merce Cunningham has been at the forefront of change in contemporary dance all over the world. He is a revolutionary who has changed the way we see.
Renee Wadleigh
Dance
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Soil Landscape Analysis
Francis D. Hole and James B. Campbell
I selected this book in honor of Francis Hole who shared his heart and his mind with his students. While an undergraduate at UW-Madison, I was lucky to have taken the last lecture course he taught; that course previewed the material contained in Soil Landscape Analysis. His life and works combined integrity, beauty and intellectual effort. His songs about soil formation weren’t half-bad either.
Michelle Wander
Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
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Spineless Wonders: Strange Tales from the Invertebrate World
Richard Conniff
Conniff does a wonderful job of making scientific information about insects and other invertebrates interesting and entertaining. It’s fun to read (and still very informative).
Richard A. Weinzierl
Crop Sciences
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Psychoneuroimmunology: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
Manfred Schedlowski and Uwe Tewes
I teach a graduate course on this topic that utilizes this textbook.
Jeffrey A. Woods
Kinesiology