University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

As a first-generation college student, I couldn’t imagine that I would one day pursue graduate study. But when I began an undergraduate research experience at the Infant Language Project at the University of Delaware under the direction of my mentor, Dr. Roberta Golinkoff, the entire trajectory of my life changed. Over the next few years, I completed my own independent project and developed a passion for discovering how children learn about the world around them. Thanks to this undergraduate experience, I pursued a Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University. During my time at Penn State, I was thrilled to see my career trajectory came full circle when I co-wrote an entry about language development in this Encyclopedia with the mentor who changed my life.

I selected this book because it has been a tremendous hit in my undergraduate class (Recreation Resource Planning & Management). After several years of frustration with traditional textbooks, I found Bryson's best-selling account of his adventures and misadventures on the Appalachian Trail. It's a fast-moving narrative filled with both humor and insight about outdoor recreation. Bryson certainly didn't intend to write a textbook, but he addressed virtually every topic we cover in class, including visitor motivations, expectations, and behavior; recreation conflict; recreation impacts; and the role played by resource managers in facilitating and shaping visitors' experiences. I am very fortunate to be able to assign a book students read enthusiastically and respond to thoughtfully.

I investigate how families learn in their homes and in parks, science museums, and libraries. My work entails understanding how families’ cultural backgrounds, shared experiences, and norms influence their educational experiences. My parents read this book aloud to me, and I read it aloud to my children. I hope others can read it aloud to their children so their families can learn together too.

Inequalities teaches not only how to find an approximate answer to a difficult problem, but also how to find out whether such an approximation is sharp and reliable. It contains a wide variety of techniques and mathematical tools which have been, and are used, in obtaining fundamental results in many branches of mathematics.

My interest in the ordeal, which formed the basis for my own most recent book, Trial by Fire and Battle in Medieval German Literature, began when Professor James Ross Sweeney and I were planning medieval studies conferences. He suggested a semester course, Crimes, Courts and Society in the Middle Ages, culminating in a conference. Asked to do one of the lectures for the course, I made the obvious choice of Isolde's trial by fire. Professor John Baldwin was one of the guest speakers for the course and conference; when I decided to expand ordeals into a book-length project, Professor Baldwin gave me much basic and valuable advice. My intellectual debt to him is apparent throughout the book.

God's word is a lamp to our feet, and a light for our paths. I hope many Chinese read this book, not only for improving their English, but more importantly, to know Jesus Christ, the way, truth, and life.

This is a classic book in fluid mechanics. I first heard this book and tried to read it as a junior undergraduate student. However, I could not finish my reading at that time. Later, I benefited a lot from reading this book. It enhanced my understanding of many fundamentals in fluid mechanics.

Beauty is irresistible and lasting.

The book was written at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, serving as a constant reminder that we can still be productive under unprecedented harsh conditions. Maintaining productivity in teaching and research is essential for a professor at Penn State. The book represents such an effort of being academically productive in all conditions.

Originally given as a gift from a friend, this book led me to be a better person in every aspect of my life (work, family, and community) through self-examination and realization of change. Every time I pick this book up, I feel God speaking directly to my soul. I recommend this book to anyone who wants not only a productive career, but a healthy soul, which ultimately helps us to reach a more meaningful and balanced success.

This book was one of several books recommended by my research advisor in graduate school. One idea in the book I found interesting and profound is "the principle of accumulation of design," which explains how a complex system can evolve from a basic and simple design. This idea not only helps me better understand design research in my area — human-computer interaction, but also offers a holistic view of the evolution of scientific research and the relationship among different research disciplines.

Fourteen years after its first publication in 1997, academic capitalism is transforming our campuses more profoundly than ever before.

This book was written by my advisor when I was a graduate student. Dr. Cun-Quan Zhang is not only my mentor, but also my role model.

I used the book every day as a reference, and hope others can benefit from the book as well.

Written by a biologist and ecologist who viewed ecological systems through holistic means, this book presents an understanding of the actual distribution of vegetation throughout western Europe. This reflects an important step from theoretical ecology, which had previously focused on understanding the fundamental niche, to applied ecology by describing the realized niche—under what conditions vegetation actually occurs on the landscape. As such, it contains an absolute wealth of natural history observations placed within a conceptual framework provided by ecological theory. Further, this work reflect one of the first large-scale efforts to classify and map vegetation, which is fundamental to monitoring temporal change and determining experimentally the impacts of disturbance. Having thus laid the foundation, the author and other researchers were then able to subsequently contrast disturbed and undisturbed communities and begin to recognize the mechanisms responsible for compositional change. What was pioneering work in the first half of the 20th century in Europe remains an important goal in the first half of the 21st century in North America; whereas theory has continued to evolve, the foundational natural history knowledge in this region of the world lags behind. Having been exposed to this book has greatly influenced my outlook on the relationship between humans and nature.

Last year I had the privilege of visiting the Galapagos archipelago. The year 2009 was the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species—the timing could not have been more perfect. I was initially trained as a biologist and have spent a portion of my career studying the teaching of evolution. Nevertheless, I was struck by the bizarre and beautiful creatures I encountered and the extreme environments in which they have carved out a living. I selected Galapagos: The Islands that Changed the World because it was such a valuable resource to me before, during, and after the journey.

The book combines history, science, and incredible images to tell the story of the islands as the inspiration for Darwin's big idea and as a natural treasure for us to preserve.

As an undergraduate English major, the Elements of Style was an essential reference for proper grammar. I always thought that Strunk and White's choice of examples was somewhat odd and even funny, not your typical grammar book. In this updated version, Maira Kalman illustrates the manuscript with wonderfully asburd interpretations of the original text.

Among the several books that led me to the area of heavy tail analysis, I find this one especially enjoyable to read. The materials are presented with rigorous math and also the author’s unique style of humor. I still use the book today as a research reference and a casual read.

Very informative, I use it in my courses.

One cannot overstate the need to understand the value of speed and decisiveness in making economic decisions if an individual, a firm, or even a society is to attain as well as maintain competitive advantage. There may be no more compelling reason to avoid centralized economic planning and to recognize that it is individual initiative and well-honed decision-making skills that advance free societies. Government action, specifically as central planning is, therefore, incompatible with the concept of a free society.

Long ago an irreverent academic warned me, “no one is dumber than a professor talking about anything other than his or her own field.” I now recognize this as utter nonsense (wink), but I admit that we have a tendency to excessive civilization. Walden has helped me ward off that danger.

The most important source for understanding rhetoric in the Spring and Autumn period in early China.

This book completely changed my career. When I studied at a professional master's program, I met with Professor Robert Pindyck, one of the authors of this book. At that time, I had no intention to become an academic researcher. After reading this book, I became fascinated by financial economics and pursued my doctoral degree.

This book theoretically analyzes corporate investment decisions and asset prices when economic and technological conditions are uncertain. The book is rigorous yet accessible; the writing is sharp and crisp. The book starts with a simple example and necessary mathematical tools before analyzing an individual firm's decisions and industry equilibrium. It significantly advanced our understanding of finance and investment. Although the book was published in 1994, it is still a must read in this field.

Purcell's textbook was instrumental in helping me understand how physicists think. His work is truly inspirational in that it allowed me to understand the importance of obtaining both a physically intuitive and rigorous mathematical understanding of physical phenomenon. Purcell's love for physics is also obvious and partially absorbed by the reader throughout the book. If not for this textbook, I might have changed fields in my sophomore year.

This is an introductory text for probability, a fundamental mathematical tool for many sub-areas of electrical engineering. It not only introduces the subject that is often perceived as the most intellectually challenging material in the electrical engineering curriculum with the rigor it deserves, but it does so in a manner that is accessible to any undergraduate student in engineering and science, and makes it fun. This is a book that I model my teaching after, in particular with respect to providing fundamentals of concepts and giving relevant real life examples. Ultimately, the reader takes away not only a solid foundation in the subject matter, but also valuable life lessons as to how to approach risk management and probabilistic actions, and perhaps a glimpse in to "the road not taken."

George Andrews is a world leading expert in the theory of partitions and he is also my great mentor. This book will provide access to his important works.

My research focus is older adult play and its contribution to human development and well-being. I selected the Encyclopedia of Human–Animal Relationships: A Global Exploration of our Connection with Animals for two reasons. First, many animals including probably all mammals, numerous birds, and some reptiles, play. Some aspects of mammal play such as human children’s play and non-human primate play, have received considerable academic attention. Other aspects like play in older adult humans, and more specifically in older women, have been completely neglected. The Encyclopedia does an excellent job of demonstrating the importance of play to animal and human development and well-being. Second, academic consensus suggests that play exhibits certain characteristics that differentiate it from other types of behavioral activity. Social scientists, nevertheless, tend to put human play and other animal play in separate categories and assume limited connection between the two. They seem willing to recognize that animal play has a biological component but seem unwilling to countenance a biological component to human play. The Encyclopedia stresses the importance of biosocial perspectives for bridging the animal-human divide, including the significant connections that can be made from studying similarities and differences in human and animal play.

My father has been a writer since I was a kid and worked on book projects mainly due to his personal interests. This helped me to understand the importance of knowledge from a young age, and inspired me to choose a career based on my passion.

The bacterial cluster regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein nuclease (Cas) system has recently emerged as an efficient and versatile genome editing tool for various animal, plant, and microbial organisms. The CRISPR/Cas technology is considered as the most important breakthrough in biotechnology so far this century and has broad applications in basic biological research, medicine and agriculture. During the past four years, my laboratory has developed bioinformatics tools and novel strategies to improve the CRISPR/Cas genome editing technology. Furthermore, we have utilized the CRISPR/Cas technology to facilitate plant genome engineering and precision breeding, including the creation of a new generation of genetically modified crops. This book is edited by Jennifer Doudna, who is a co-inventor of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology and a recipient of 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

My adviser, Dr. Srinivas Melkote, had begun working on the third edition of this book when I joined as a doctoral student. He freely invited and engaged me in rich one-on-one conversations about empowerment, social justice, equality, and directed change. These conversations inspired me immensely and contributed to the substantial expansion of my intellectual horizon. I am thankful to him and this book project for its lasting significance on my professional and personal journey.

I started pursuing a Ph.D. in statistics in 2008 and got the tenure promotion in 2019. My research has been focused on the development of new methods, theory, and algorithms for statistical learning by exploiting the underlying low-dimensional structure to analyze the high-dimensional and complex data. This book provides a comprehensive summary of the rapidly evolving research on high-dimensional statistics. Especially, this book shows how the sparsity assumption allows us to develop new methods and theory for sparse regression, matrix decomposition, sparse multivariate analysis, graphical models, and compressed sensing. As pointed out by an old African proverb, if we want to go quickly, go alone, but if we want to go far, go together. I do hope that more talented researchers will come together and move the field of high-dimensional statistics forward.

Oshin is a 1980’s Japanese drama series, which was broadcast in more than 60 countries since it was first aired in Japan by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in 1983. The main character, Oshin, is a successful businesswoman who had a modest beginning as a daughter of a tenant farmer forced to work as a live-in servant from the age of 7. This 297-episode melodrama told a story of human endurance and success in the face of extreme proverty, abuse, world wars, natural disasters and deaths in family. I watched this television series with my family many years ago in China as a ten-year-old girl. It profoundly influenced my life because values such as persistence, resilience and loyalty went deep into my heart. It'll continue to motivate me for the rest of my life.

This book is fun to read. A brilliant nuclear physicist, an inspirational professor, and a Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Feynman gave some insight into his witty and brilliant mind. I highly recommend this book to all students and faculty at Penn State.

Warning: Reading this book may result in a sudden uncontrollable urge to laugh in inappropriate places.

As a graduate student, I was drawn in by this book's ambitious goal of understanding rodent behavior in a more natural context than the laboratory can provide. Reading about Calhoun's research taught me the importance of keeping theories rooted in the context of natural behaviors. This has been a cornerstone of my theoretical work ever since, such that I ask myself "but why would the brain do that?" Often, I find that the answer is unclear, which forces me to go back and work harder on finding the right theory.

It is hard to overestimate the influence of Knuth’s classic book, but it takes time and patience to read three thick volumes, if not used as a coffee-table book. What I get from the book, in addition to technical skills, is how a great mind treats a subject with rigor and how a problem, whether big or small, is presented and tackled. In a similar sense, Knuth’s “Digital Typography” is a great read too.

Michael Hattersley was my uncle and my role model as an academic and a human. When I was in high school he was a professor at Harvard Business School, spending his weekends on Cape Cod and staying with us in our Brookline apartment during the week. In conversations after school in his smoke-filled room as the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour droned in the background, he taught me about politics, language, history, learning, and the world. Michael later retired to the Cape to be a full-time writer, and this is the book of poetry he published when I was in college. It’s filled with his friends, his politics, his family, his home, and his life. Michael loved Cape Cod. It lighted his life and his poetry, and it was there that he felt most connected to the natural world from which we come and to which we ultimately return. 

When I came to work at the Hazleton campus in 2000, Alan Price was on sabbatical for the semester, yet he continually stopped by my office that first semester: First to show me the supply closet, and then later to talk with me about my teaching and my research. He was a generous mentor, one who was quick to share the results of his own research with me, as we work in similar areas. I remain grateful for his advice and friendship

A wise frog once asked "What's so amazing / that keeps us stargazing? / And what do we think we might see?"

For me, the answers to those questions were found in this book, which I checked out of my elementary school library over and over. In a fast-moving field where books are often out-of-date before their first printing, Our Universe had amazing longevity. Its popularity, aided by a friendly layout, compelling text, and beautiful illustrations, helped teach the world about the facts and mysteries of the universe.

Over the years it inspired many people, me included, to pursue a career in astronomy.

The Principles of Biomedical Ethics is a foundational text in bioethics and law, which is my area of scholarship. I draw on ideas from this book in my law review articles about the law of medical decision making.

This book was given to me by my undergraduate adviser in my first economics course. At that time I didn’t know what I wanted to major in or exactly what I wanted to do once I graduated. This book really helped shape that decision as it helped me decide on economics as a major and pushed me to think deeply about economics and choose to do graduate work in economics. 

Wow! Sharing a book with others in this fashion can get personal really fast. Why choose this book? First, Solomon once said that there is nothing new under the sun. This is most true when one considers questions of faith, spirituality, and meaning. For me this book by N.T. Wright has an amazing capacity to discuss timeless questions in a new and engaging way. Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? N. T. Wright argues that each of these questions takes us into the mystery of who God is and what he wants from us.

Second, I wrestled with the desire to recommend adding a book that would be timeless and selecting a book that was not already part of the collection. It is a risk at this juncture to claim that this book will be enduring, but I can settle in my own conscience that I selected a book that will add further to the breadth and depth of the collection. Finally, it is my hope that like me others will find this book enjoyable, accessible, and meaningful.

This book was published in 1994, the year I entered graduate school, and has been my guide and inspiration as I have learned to be a scholar and a teacher. "The academy is not paradise," writes Hooks. "But learning is the place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom."

It is a key text for writers of creative nonfiction.

I almost always have this book open on my desk. It is a book I practically know by heart, yet continue to reread because it helps me ground my work in joyful ways. As a fourth-grade teacher, I fell in love with the curious, wonder-filled inquiry approach to teaching and research that the book promotes. It taught me to advocate and innovate. The lead author eventually became my Ph.D. mentor and dear friend. I am honored to still get to learn from Nancy Dana, and her work, each day.

Beginnings is a foundational book for understanding the origins of scholarship focused on understanding Black youth's development in a holistic manner. This collection of works, from leaders in the field, includes theory and addresses important developmental issues for Black children, but does so, in a way that was uncharacteristic of the time -- not focused on deficits and dysfunction. The book pushed me to think critically about our knowledge base about minoritized youth.

Who Really Cares uses various datasets and analyses to consider the truth behind the common perception that those on the political left are more compassionate than those on the political right. Brooks provides evidence that counters this stereotype and notes the benefits of giving both for the self and society. Published as I was completing my dissertation examining identity and charitable giving, this book led me to examine more nuanced roles of political identity in charitable giving as part of a stream on identity and charitable giving.  I hope this book will motivate other researchers to consider how stereotypes may not be reality and investigate counterintuitive patterns in consumer behavior.

When I was a teen, The House of the Spirits shaped my undertandings of what it can mean to be a woman. Allende conveys intersectionality (of nationality, ethnicity, gender, and spirituality) through storytelling. It wasn't until I returned to the book as an adult and saw that powerful storytelling is key to being curious and humble about intersecting identities, two things sychotherapists must be to build authentic and culturally and spiritually affirming relationships with their clients.

In 1753, the noted nosologist, Carl Linnaeus, named it Theobroma cacao “Food of the gods.” Joanne Harris emphasized this exotic import’s erotic sensations in her 1999 fiction debut Chocolat. For millennia, healers have touted amazing attributes derived from this Amazonian medicine. By the 1950s, what had once been used as a drug, a food, and as a source of currency was being marketed merely as a pleasure-filled snack. Half a century later, the craving to carve out chocolate’s healthy, medicinal qualities resurged. Though many authors have shared bits and pieces of chocolate’s history, Coe and Coe provide a remarkable, readable, and memorable tour de force of nature’s most complex product. Their use of “True History” in the title is a specific reference to conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s The True History of the Conquest of Mexico (1572), and the authors aim for a similar goal “to tell as true a story as possible.” The True History of Chocolate is a pleasure to read under any circumstance, but the experience is even more delectable if read with a chocolate bar or beverage close at hand!

Chautauqua stands as a unique slice of United States' heritage, education, and culture. Its religious rootedness provides an alternative setting--as it has since its 1874 foundation--in which people of all ages can retreat from day-to-day life just long enough to recharge their intellectual engines while doing his or her own thing within a climate of believers and religious leaders.

Jeffrey Simpson's Chautauqua: An American Utopia encapsulates, in words and pictures, myriad meanings of "Chautauqua" that underlie my family's annual pilgrimage to this gem of Americana. I hope that the presence and regular use of Simpson's general overview of Chautauqua by Penn State University library readers will lure other families to investigate this unique community and to begin their own Chautauqua experiences.

This book was instrumental in helping me to become a better reader, and it also introduced me to the classic literature during my undergraduate career.

This is a posthumous collection of essays by Bachelard, the 20th century's foremost philosopher of the "material imagination." My favorite essay is "The Cosmos of Iron" about the Basque artist Chillida, who "dreams dreams of iron, he draws with iron, sees with iron." As an architect, I appreciate Bachelard's descriptions and interpretations of material objects because they so strikingly deviate from the technical and economic perspectives which dominate our culture. Neither perspective is adequate to understand works, such as Chillida's, "dedicated to the glory of matter."

In 1989, the Voyager 1 spacecraft - then out beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto - was instructed

to turn towards the Sun and take a picture of each of the planets in the Solar System including the Earth. The experiment was motivated by the late astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996), author of the bestselling books Dragons of Eden, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, and many others, who also helped found the premier planetary science journal Icarus and the space-advocacy group known as the Planetary Society. Sagan captivated audiences worldwide through regular appearances on the NBC Tonight Show and in his award-winning 13-episode Cosmos series appearing on PBS in 1980. He was also a powerfully-effective spokesperson for science, scientific literacy, and use of technology for human welfare and world peace. His speech and writing were uplifting and contagious and helped inspire and launch the careers of an entire generation of astronomers. I am a member of the "Sagan generation". My research on the habitability of planets was inspired by Sagan who focused his professional attention on origin-of-life scenarios on the Earth, Venus, Mars, and moons of the outer Solar System. Pale Blue Dot was one of Sagan's final books in which he attempted to unify the triumphs and fallacies of all human causes through a single remarkable image captured by the Voyager space probe from the edge of the Solar System in 1989 - an image of a "pale, blue dot", the Earth, described by Sagan as a "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

From Pale Blue Dot; Random House; 1994

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. C. Sagan.

My sister, Dr. Susan Wilf, translated this book from Chinese. She selected this work for translation and worked with the author closely for years to bring this important story to a global audience. Susan is an outstanding scholar of Chinese and Russian literature, and I am honored to dedicate my tenure nameplate book to her.

A friend of mine gave me this book at a time when I felt overwhelmed—I couldn’t put it down. I have referenced this book often as a great resource for dealing with stress, and issues and problems in life. The main character meets with three inspirational coaches who each offer a slightly different perspective and different advice on living a full life. The book serves as a great reflection tool to help you sort out what is meaningful in your life and how to make the best out of any situation. I highly recommend reading it.

This book was written by my PhD adviser, Sheridan Blau (now at Teachers College, Columbia University).  His influence on me and my own work cannot be understated. 

The book offers a glimpse of truly meaningful, rich, and engaging literature instruction that takes us beyond simply "having read" and into why and how we read, and to what ends.  Students in my courses will recognize several of these workshops. Overall, it depics a way of being in the classroom that I strive to emulate.

Speaking Into The Air explores the idea of communication as a problem—as something, in other words, that is worth taking time to understand. And it does so in a way that is both erudite and earnest, that looks beyond the instrumentality of communication to its spirit. "How did we get to the pass where such pathos attaches to the act of speaking to another person?" he asks, and his answer speaks to the complex interplay of strategy and mutuality that informs human interaction. Peters evocatively quotes T.S. Eliot:

"And what the dead had no speech for, when living,

They can tell you, being dead: the communication

Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."

I grew up in the Youngstown, Ohio area and lived there until I was 22 years old. During that time, I witnessed the city's decline from a thriving industrial city into an area that is one of the most economically challenged in our country. However, Youngstown continues to be a very special place for me, my family, and friends. While I was growing up, I didn't realize what a unique and interesting area this was. Only after leaving did I begin to better appreciate Youngstown's wonderful mix of ethnic groups, its strong appreciation of the working classes, and the fact that it is where I met some of the most intriguing and funny people in my life. I continue to visit regularly, and continue to hope that the city will somehow bounce back from its hardships.

?1991) was a physician and artist who devoted his career to producing paintings that conveyed complex concepts in physiology and anatomy. His paintings are vivid and beautiful depictions of the anatomical consequences of disease, and yet they are not sanitized images which remove the individual person (the patient) from the anatomical system under study. Dr. Netter's paintings inspired me to learn more about cardiovascular function and structure, and each painting provides a guided tour of the system under study. Despite the fact that he completed most of his work over 30 years ago, I believe this book will remain valuable for decades to come. Our names for the various tissues and structures may change over time and our knowledge of their function is constantly developing, but human anatomy itself remains constant. A quote from Dr. Netter captures the care with which he designed his paintings to teach complex concepts. He said, "the difficult thing about making medical pictures is not the painting at all but rather the study, the thinking, the planning, the creation of a picture so that it says something. Once I have the picture in mind it is easy to put it on paper.

One painting in particular defines the area of study on which I expect to spend my career. This image (on page 216) is entitled "Interrelated factors reputedly concerned in the etiology of atherosclerosis. Even 30 years ago, Netter laid out a single model that captured all of the currently important elements in designing preventative strategies for reducing cardiovascular disease. His painting goes beyond the usual listing of cardiovascular risk factors that were known at the time (diet, exercise, smoking, etc) and shows that treatment of cardiovascular disease requires sophisticated understanding of the effects of behavior on biology and an understanding of how multiple risk factors interact to result in disease. The important conceptual breakthrough appears at the bottom of the image. He depicts two major mechanisms that are likely to be responsible for the effects of cardiac risk factors on atherogenesis: changes in lipid metabolism and changes in the susceptibility of the artery wall. The emerging field of interventional cardiology, and my own work, is now focused on reducing the susceptibility of the artery wall to the development of plaques. Dr. Netter's work anticipated this critical development in cardiovascular science and I hope that his paintings will continue to inspire generations of scholars interested in biobehavioral factors that influence human health and physiology.

I chose this book as most significant because reading it began a chain of events that has led to the publication of two books on first ladies as well as a number of conference papers and phone interviews with journalists. Mrs. Bush's candid reflections on people, places, and events during the years she served as first lady reveal the hard work and importance to their husbands' administrations of the women who hold that position. I have since read other biographies of first ladies, including Hilary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, and Betty Ford. Lady Bird Johnson, Eleanor Roosvelt, Lou Hoover and others have also written autopbiographical works. Fascinating reading all of it.

Through my journey, I have experienced many hardships that have led me to question my importance both personally and professionally. However, as I read how faith allowed one individual to overcome persecution, I was led to draw on strengthening my own faith to help me manage through circumstances. I have achieved my success through God alone. God showed me the path through difficulty and allowed for success and achievement. I hope this story can show others that no matter how difficult life can be, faith can move any roadblock and be a beacon of hope.

Beautifully photographed and written, Days With My Father reminds us that our humanity is often most genuinely expressed in the relationships we have with our parents - the people who cheer the loudest, most proudly, and most lovingly for us.

The book You Can't Go Home Again provides an analysis of the inception of two of the defining (and related) events of the 20th century: the beginning of the depression and the rise of Nazi Germany. Rather than look at the events from a merely historical perspective, Thomas Wolfe considers a human perspective, where man's worst behavioral characteristics (e.g., greed and impassiveness) within a group mentality yield catastrophic results. The events chronicled in this book have relevance throughout any period, because you can't prevent the repeat of such tragedies without first comprehending the human responsibility inherent within them.

The author of this book, David Rosenbaum, is a cherished friend, colleague, and office neighbor. He has opened my eyes to an under-appreciated field within psychology, represented in this book. The beauty of this field is how very complex cognitive processes are cloaked in mundane, everyday activities. David has shared with me his talent for designing simple yet elegant experiments, and this has led to an unexpected and wonderful collaboration.

My father passed away shortly before I learned of my promotion to full professor. He was a prolific scientist who made deep contributions to the fields of physics and mathematics. He was also a terrific father who invested in my education, fostered my curiosity, and believed I could accomplish anything I set my mind toward. Whether it was playing catch in the backyard or teaching me algebra at the kitchen table, I was blessed with a great dad. Given that some of my father's most important contributions related to random walks, this book seemed like a particularly fitting choice to acknowledge his contributions to my own success.

This book is a fine example of a world-class physicist communicating to a general audience. Frank Chen describes the difficult plasma physics underlying research on controlled thermonuclear fusion energy in understandable language, and reviews the progress that has been made during the last fifty years. He also surveys concerns about global warming and possible energy shortages, to further underline the importance of fusion research. Of course, it is hard to be certain about Chen’s optimism regarding affordable fusion energy, somewhat in the way that it is hard to be certain about the pessimism of many climate scientists regarding global warming. Nevertheless, both cases show that human society must engage in public discussions, research, and planning that extend beyond the relatively short time frames of the business and political worlds. This book, by one of our greatest scientists and teachers, makes an excellent contribution to such discussions.

When I started my postdoc, I was completely new to the field of heme proteins and gas sensing and was overwhelmed by the breadth of the field. This book was a fantastic resource, with detailed chapters on every class of gas-sensing proteins that reviewed all the literature, from spectroscopy to biology. This book helped me understand the complexity of the field and hooked me on biological gas sensing.

I remember picking up this book and reading it after determining that I wanted to conduct qualitative studies in urban and distressed communities. After reading Code of the Street, it opened my eyes to the depth of qualitative research that had been conducted in urban communities and the need for more researchers of color to engage in socially responsible work in these areas. I was fascinated by the eloquence with which Anderson spoke as he described the blueprint of urban life. His culturally relevant research-based text filled in the gaps that were missing from much of the mainstream literature. His words told a very vivid story that inspired me to want to tell the same types of stories in my line of work. As I moved toward building my line of research, I would periodically read a couple of passages to help me keep focused and to know that I was headed down the right path.

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.” (Michelle Obama)

Upon reading this quote, I was struck by its accuracy in describing my journey of self-discovery in academia. Words of faith, family, and hope filled this inspirational book’s pages and helped guide and ground my path as a woman traversing the roads of the academy.

I selected this book because I believe that every psychiatrist working with children in mental health settings benefits from at least a basic knowledge of behavioral interventions for commonly occurring problems. We all fall back to what we know and I have found that having a knowledge base that spans both pharmacological and psychosocial treatments is beneficial. As a psychiatrist, my training in behavioral therapies has allowed me to appropriately frame the benefits and limitations of psychiatric medications.

The undisputable reference with inexhaustive coverage of thermomechanical processing of metallic materials. I highly recommend this book for graduate students as well as materials scientists and engineers involved in the characterization, modelling and thermal treatment of metals.

The quirky title and cover art first brought me to The Sisters Brothers, a Western I hoped might fill a few afternoons one summer.  But I soon found myself engrossed in the voice of a man who is — by turn — a murderer, outlaw, traveler, business partner, friend, son, and brother. The violence and meanness of the novel may strike some readers as excessive, but they succeed in making the truly tender moments all the more powerful. In particular, the novel has led me to ponder the contours of friendship and brotherhood, and the sacrifices one makes for each.

I took the course associated with this textbook in the fall of 1982 as an undergraduate chemical engineering student at the University of Akron. The reputation of this course and the high expectations of the instructor who taught the course terrified most students. At the end of thermodynamics from the previous semester the professor advised us to get this book early and study the appendix concerning tensors over the summer. I took his advice and over the summer made the transition from an average passive post high school student to an involved self-directed engineering student. I went on to excel in this course and it changed my whole outlook toward my education. It was due to this course that I understood that I wanted to go on to graduate school.

I have very fond memories of this course and textbook as it represents the first time that I recognized that I could surmount significant academic challenges and could experience the immense satisfaction of doing so.

I selected Presumed Incompetent because it served as instrumental encouragement and confirmation that I was not alone in my experiences during the tenure journey. Specifically, the Women of Color academics boldly named gendered racism and structural inequities as challenges and how they not only survived but thrived and advanced through the professorial ranks. I hope Presumed Incompetent continues to be a beacon of light and source of strength for Women of Color academics.

This book is exemplary for its theoretically sophisticated, historically-informed cultural analysis. I appreciate the comparative dimensions the author adds, which makes the study that much more ambitious and useful to others, as well as his engagement with issues of contemporary significance.

Although this is a book written by my father, I would recommend this book to others. The book is a biography of Prof. Loo-Keng Hua, the mentor of my father. Hua is recognized by many as the most distinguished mathematician in modern China. Through the life of Hua and the struggle of their generation of Chinese scientists, we gain great courage in the pursuit of science.

I have found scientific research a satisfying career because it fulfills one's curiosity by offering novel answers to the world around us and new methods to treat devastating human diseases. For example, you may have wondered why your skill cells are different from your brain cells or blood cells. Epigenetics is a novel research field which seeks answers for this fundamental biology question, i.e., although each cell in a human body has the same genetic code carried on the DNA double helix, it differs in morphology and function from other cell types. The knowledge from this research area will help us understand human health, development, aging, immunity and cancers. Many leading scientists in this research field have offered their own perspectives in this book. It is fun to read and useful to guide future research.

I remember clearly the first time I heard the name Amartya Sen. He had just won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his contribution on welfare economics." It was a big deal not only for me as a student of economics in Kenya at that time but also to many other economists as his works focus on critical issues of welfare (social and economic justices, freedom, capability, poverty, vulnerability, deprivation, hunger, famine, identity and values) in developing countries. Later in 2001 when I was a graduate student at Western Illinois University, I bought his book -- Development as Freedom -- that was published in 1999. His contribution really touched me when I read the following:

We live in a world of unprecedented opulence of a kind that could have been hard even to imagine a century or two ago. Yet, we also live in a world with remarkable deprivation, destitution and oppression. There are many new problems as well as old ones including persistence of poverty and unfulfilled elementary needs, occurrence of famines and widespread hunger, violation of elementary political freedoms as well as basic liberties, extensive neglect of the interests and agency of women, and worsening threats to our environment and to the sustainability of our economic and social lives.

Prof. Sen is an economist, philosopher and academician with unmatched contributions in welfare economics. He addresses issues that are at the core of ordinary individuals deprived of opportunities in poor countries as well as those marginalized people in advanced countries. The words in this book have not only been my motivation over the years but also my inspiration.

I would not have made it to this point in my academic career, or even had an academic career in the first place, if not for my graduate advisor Mike Schulte. It all began when Mike loaned this book to me a year before I even started graduate school. It was the first textbook I ever read cover to cover, and I learned more from it than any other textbook. Several editions later, this edition is long out of date and may never be taken off the shelf of the library. However, I will smile when I think of it sitting there as a snapshot of the time and a reminder of a simple act that changed my life. Thank you, Mike for everything; you have made more of a difference than you know.

Prof. Pettegree shares my approach to writing about the history of books, libraries, and information service; he ties it to the cultural, economic, and political history of the era. This scholarly survey has implications for the development of international trade, the study of religious conflict, the growth of the middle class, and the shift from Latin to vernacular languages in public discourse.

A book is more than a text; it's also a cultural artifact with a cross-disciplinary mission to teach, record, and preserve.

This book played an integral role in the development of the material for my doctoral dissertation. At the time I was searching for a formal method that could allow a robot to represent its interactions and relationships with people. This book offered a number of significant clues as to how to proceed.

Most researchers advance their field of study through their particular findings and research contributions. A much smaller group advances their field by giving it structure and by organizing the knowledge that is already available. Ven Te Chow belongs to the latter group. His book Applied Hydrology, written with two of his former PhD students, is still the one book in the field of hydrology that structures all our knowledge in a consistent manner. It is the first book I would recommend to anybody studying hydrology—over twenty years after it was written—and it has greatly influenced my thinking!

One of the most dazzling minds of the Renaissance --'founder of discursivity' to borrow Michel Foucault's neologism for powerfully original thinkers-- Montaigne has paved the way to transform my conceiving of central issues of the Western philosophical tradition: the status of representation and of imitation, the nature of language and the function of rhetoric, the problematic of the subject. He has shown truth to be a thing of this world --produced, sustained and managed by strategies of power, as Foucault will add-- the relativity of civilizations and the elusive nature of personal identity, the capacity of the written word to embody being, plenitude, and presence. In Montaigne's self-reflexive and encyclopedic Essays I find myself before a distant yet pertinent textual expression that allows me to gain understanding of my own critical activity and to situate myself theoretically. Few authors of the beginning of the baroque area speak to us as directly and immediately as Montaigne does. I consider Montaigne a contemporary fellow whose name engraved on Burrowes Building east frieze is a constant reminder that, indeed, I've got a friend in Pennsylvania.

There are a number of books on economics that can teach the reader the subject matter of economics--however, this is one of those rare books that can teach the reader how to think like an economist. I used this book in my first graduate-level course in economics and found that it really made me think. Why? Because, as the author states in the introduction, if we can effectively teach physics, mathematics, chemistry and other subjects to our students by assigning them a number of problems with varied levels of difficulty, why not economics? There is a great supply of interesting problems throughout the textbook that get the reader to grapple with the economic issues.

The first result of having to use this textbook was that I spent a good deal of time and effort on these problems--the credit for the foundation of whatever little I know about economics goes to this textbook. The second result is that it has had a huge impact on how I teach my classes, selecting those textbooks that have a plentiful supply of problems and emphasizing the role of problem solving in learning how to think like a financial economist.

David Wang's long-awaited study redefines the parameters of modern Chinese literature. Focusing on the epic mid-century transitions, Wang's monumental ouevre situates twentieth-century Chinese literature in deep historical time by excavating the "lyrical tradition" of Chinese writing. Faced with historical changes on a monumental scale, Chinese writers and artists sustained their creative impetus by drawing on and reinventing the lyrical foundations that had supported Chinese literature through the ages. Synthesizing a vast amount of scholarship in both English and Chinese, and all the while re-reading canonical texts and drawing attention to hitherto overlooked figures, Wang's book proposes a scholarly agenda that will occupy the field for many years. I look to The Lyrical in Epic Time as a model of scholarship, and I have drawn inspiration from it for my own work, in which I juxtapose Wang's "lyrical tradition" with the "cosmopolitan tradition" of modern Chinese literature. Working on a similar period, but from a very different methodological and conceptual angle, I find many productive points of conversation with Wang's line of thought. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed the slow genesis of The Lyrical in Epic Time; not being a student of Wang's myself, I have nonetheless—like nearly anyone in the field today—benefited from the intellectual generosity of Prof. Wang.

Katherine was the only social science professor I knew as a child. Her scholarship was an inspiration for me to pursue an academic career, and this book is a reflection on her own career as well as a fascinating read.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was more than just an inspirational leader. He was a tactical genius who effected radical changes based on the radical teachings of his faith. By targeting Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma with the weapon of non-violence and the sword of self-sacrifice, he initiated sweeping changes in the character of our nation. I saw the power of one voice in uniting many hands and many feet. Even today I hear the tramp-tramp-tramp sound of his feet, marching for a righteous cause. Let us all join that march.

Leonardo da Vinci, the 15th-century self-taught artist, architect, and scientist, is considered to be one of the most versatile and greatest geniuses of all times. Leonardo had unquenchable curiosity with a feverishly inventive imagination. Through his paintings, notes, drawings, and diagrams, much has been decoded about da Vinci’s logic, creativity, methodology, and futuristic accomplishments. Reading about Leonardo has taught me the importance of maintaining a passionate curiosity, pursuing our interests, and learning continuously. More important, we can appreciate the interplay between art and science and the unquenchable “need to know.”

The clear presentation of data is paramount for the engineer (and in many, many other fields, of course), who must often communicate complex information to a wide audience in limited space or time. This book is the first of a excellent series from the author, each of which beautifully deals with how to accurately, succinctly, yet creatively, communicate data of various sorts. If the reader will use some of the techniques suggested, and more often try to think of interesting but efficient ways to show data, the number of dry, illegible or ponderous tables and graphs, especially in electronic presentations, could be reduced, to the great relief of those in the audience. In addition, digesting the principles of "graphical integrity" which this book describes will also make the reader a more critical consumer of the tables and graphs of others, many of which mislead.

My hope is that this book both inspires my fellow engineers to rise above the data they're representing and free the artist within, and enlightens them to recognize when others have not met their responsibility for clarity in graphical communications.

I chose this book because it has shaped me both as a scientist and a teacher. In this book, Dr. Desowitz illustrates how complex topics in parasitology and biology can be relayed in simpler terms, allowing me to rethink how to cover such topics in my courses. With a focus on real-life case-studies, and a little humor, this book is a model for how I approach undergraduate classes in infectious disease.

“Humans as Self-Constructing Living Systems” synthesizes an enormous body of work into a comprehensive developmental framework to better understand human behavior on an individual, person-centered level. As a research gerontologist and clinical geropsychologist, I found this work to be profoundly influential in conceptualizing, designing approaches, and measuring and evaluating both processes and outcomes related to optimizing care to older adults, especially those living with dementia.

I have always found Boorstin's work to be incredibly interesting with all the details he provides followed by a great overarching perspective. In The Creators one gets an appreciation for the imagination that sparked successful creators, but also the dedication it took to achieve the creation -- very inspiring.

This text and the associated graduate course taught by Dr. Van Soest was pivotal in merging my previous veterinary clinical experience with current graduate education. Throughout the course, many lightbulbs went off for me, allowing for a level of scientific explanation for my real world veterinary practice experiences. It was truly an enlightening experience. Beyond the educational experience, Dr. Van Soest inspired a desire to applied basic foundational information to other areas. To this end, I have applied my dairy cattle nutritional knowledge to many other species, which has continuously provided me with new and exciting areas of study. This approach has opened many new doors during my academic career and provided me opportunities to share my knowledge internationally. Many other people throughout my education and career have provided me inspiration and insight, but I believe Dr. Van Soest's course to be the cornerstone to my educational career. I am extremely grateful that I can recognize his contributions to my career through my own academic success.

More than any author, Godfried Bomans taught me how to write, think and look at life - and the subject of this book, which

provides a microscopic look at the world of insects, has interesting parallels with my research, which aims to provide

tools to look at atomistic/molecular interactions.

Although not even remotely related to computer science, Guns, Germs, and Steel has been an absolute favorite of mine since the first time I read it. It is — at its core — an exercise in presenting and evaluating models to explain a highly intriguing aspect of human history: why did certain societies (those in Europe and Asia) thrive, while others (Americas, Australia, and sub-Saharan Africa) did not? According to Professor Jared Diamond, this had to do with geography and timing more than the superiority of one race over another. For someone who must understand complicated computer systems and employ creative techniques to model their behavior in both his research and teaching, this book is highly inspirational. Good models balance simplicity and accuracy. Furthermore, they do not hesitate to cast away old ideas and approaches that do not work. Diamond's models do all of this. To top it all off, Diamond's writing makes this work on anthropology approachable even to non-experts.

I have selected this book because it is unique in describing a general approach of mathematical methods that govern the behavior of sensors for remote surveillance. This book does an excellent job at merging both signal processing and electromagnetic wave theories and describing how to extract the desired information from the illumination of waveforms into a target in a very rigorous but yet intuitive manner. 

This book has a special meaning for me personally. I recall using an early version of this book (class notes), when I was a graduate student, for the Multidimensional Signal Processing course that Professor Richard Blahut (Electrical Engineering) taught me at the University of Illinois. I still use this book extensively in my research work. I am very honored to be able to choose this book as part of the Penn State's Promotion and Tenure Recognition Program.

This book was my most valuable resource for understanding fundamental principles of cardiopulmonary bypass (bypassing heart and lung during open-heart surgery) procedures during my studies in graduate school. My PhD research topic was "Design and performance of physiologic pulsatile flow cardiopulmonary bypass systems for neonates and infants." Dr. Taylor’s book has served as an excellent guide in helping me to not only gain understanding of the principles of CPB procedures, but also providing all of the details and mechanisms of pulsatile perfusion and their impact on vital organs during extracorporeal circulation. Although this book was published over 20 years ago, it is my opinion that it continues to be a perfect resource for beginners studying cardiopulmonary bypass procedures.

Upon a recommendation from my undergraduate mentor, Dr. J. Thomas Walker of Susquehanna University, I read Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's classic, The Social Construction of Reality, the summer before I began graduate study in sociology at Penn State in 1988. This book masterfully synthesizes the thought of American Pragmatists John Dewey and G.H. Mead, German phenomenology, Max Weber’s interpretive sociology and his conception of power, and—crucially—Emile Durkheim’s treatment of culture.  Berger and Luckmann lay a foundation for understanding the very fabric of the social—from the inherently social lived experience of individuals to the contours of large scale social institutions.  It may sound from that description as though the book is dry and inaccessible, but it is a lively and interesting read.  The book especially shaped my career-long interest in the role of culture in social behavior and in organizations, which I have applied in my research and teaching in the sociology of crime and criminal justice decision making.  Since that summer 24 years ago, this book has provided the foundation for the way I think of literally every sociological issue I have encountered in my research and teaching.  

This is one of the few books I had a chance to give to my late father as a gift. It recounts an extraordinary journey of a European who embraced Islam. It takes place in the 1930s in the Saudi desert when the sky was still unpolluted and life was simple, before the advent of oil wealth. The book describes a spiritual journey in search of the Creator. It is a fascinating story that bridges the gap between the East and the West from both spiritual and cultural perspectives. Its relevance to current times cannot be overstated.

By 1964, Dick Gregory lifted himself out of deep poverty, became a successful comedian, and joined the civil rights movement in the South. Among many things, his autobiography illustrates how, at least on a personal level, humor can overcome bigotry and hatred. Nigger is one of the most memorable books I have ever read.

I did not have much money when I was a doctoral student and could not afford to buy many books. Yet, I quickly decided to buy this book when I first saw it in my doctoral program, and that proved to be money well spent. The book continues to inspire me with many useful ideas for examining social phenomena.

This is the first book I have published, so the effort put toward it gives the book particular meaning for me. I was the first editor of the text, and I participated in writing three of the chapters. Multicultural counseling has been a major focus of my professional career as a school counselor and as a counselor educator. Gaining a multicultural perspective and developing multicultural competency has also been a major theme in my life.

James Carey was a scholar who recognized the significance of culture as part of the communication process. He devoted his life to better understanding how culture and communication were intertwined. Communication As Culture made a profound impact on the field of cultural studies, and Professor Carey, through his generous sharing of his time, inspired numerous individuals to connect culture and communication in their scholarship in ways that did not occur in previous eras. I was fortunate to call Jim a friend. I collaborated with him to edit his work after he gave an address at Penn State for a national-level graduate conference that was organized by the College of Communications in 1999. He served as the keynote speaker for that event and was outstanding. He was a wonderful person, a skilled researcher, and very much a gentleman. When I would attend conferences, we would share a beer, talk about the field, and he would encourage my research well before I was known by anyone. The Cultural and Critical Studies division within the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC) has chosen to dedicate the top student paper award to the memory of James Carey. It was a move that I was proud to support after his passing in 2006, and I am now fortunate to head up that division. If anyone wants to truly understand the link between communication and culture, the book I have chosen is an essential text.

I chose this book as representative of the Nancy Drew series as a whole, mostly because I remember its slightly creepy front cover with particular vividness. The Nancy Drew books were a constant companion of my preteen years. I would read them late into the night, and at one point the librarian at my elementary school urged me to think about “reading something besides Nancy Drew.” I am sure that my love of those books, and Nancy’s love of detective work and figuring out mysteries, influenced my path into literary criticism and especially my current work in children’s literature. I was especially drawn to the characters and their strong friendship. Inseparable chums Bess (who was pleasantly plump), George (who enjoyed her boyish name), and Nancy herself (observant, sharp-witted, and curious) set off together fearlessly on their adventures in each installment. They offered positive models of girlhood and alternatives to the images of damsels in distress and princesses.

Rilke responds to ten letters written by 19-year-old Franz Kappus, who is writing to the master because he is having doubts about whether or not he has the ability to be a poet. Rilke encourages him to believe in himself, to hone his skills, and to persist; he also gives him some sage advice about life. The professional advice Rilke gave Kappus is applicable to all the arts and was a great inspiration to me as I negotiated the uncertain, challenging years necessary before becoming an opera singer. It all came at a time when I needed to hear it in order to continue the arduous journey toward maturity and success as an artist. I hope Rilke’s words will serve as inspiration to our Penn State students, no matter the discipline.

Chosen with gratitude for the many hours of collaboration with James D. Kubicki at Penn State, my unofficial mentor and valued colleague.

La Chambre Claire is a deeply felt reflection on the nature of photography, representation, time, and mortality. Barthes beautifully intertwines his semiotic theory with his poignant search for a true photograph of his beloved mother. After looking extensively among family albums, he finally rediscovers his mother in a picture of her as a small child, where she lets herself be (and be photographed) and his son is able to read the quality (gentleness) that defined her when she was alive. Camera Lucida enlightens, intellectually and spiritually, those of us who are interested in the rhetoric of images and the profound effect they can have on the audience.

This book reveals the incredible diversity and power of parasites, which to most peoples’ surprise, dominate most ecosystems, though they usually go unseen.  Over evolutionary time, parasites have infiltrated most living species; in fact, as this book reveals, they are thought to outnumber non-parasitic species.  Many parasites species have developed complex life histories to access their hosts, and evolved impressive manipulations to maximize their own fitness at the expense of their host.  When viewed through the lens of fitness advantages and natural selection, the evolution of many of their strategies and specific tactics are quite remarkable; dome of the examples in this well-written book are hard to believe, and will make you want to share their details with someone!  Many parasites are, of course, medically relevant and their ability to adapt and overcome treatments makes them very challenging to manage. Others, however, are worth studying from a very basic perspective, to understand how they evolved and why they are so successful. Still others are valuable as applied research subjects because if we can harness their ability to influence their hosts, perhaps we can use them as allies to help control pests, like insects that attack crop plants.  This book reminded me why I became interested in parasites in graduate school and continue to keep these fascinating organisms part of my research program.

Radio frequency (RF) and microwave technology is a key component of modern communication systems such as high speed internet and cell phones, and many books have been written by various experts about this technology from a purely engineering point of view. This book, on the other hand, provides a background on how RF/microwave radiation interacts with human body, and how the use of this technology has contributed to the development of therapeutic applications in areas such as cardiology, urology, surgery, and oncology.

I have selected this book because of its special meaning to me. One day in early 2003, when I was a post-doc at Drexel, Arye Rosen approached me. He spoke with me about this book that he was co-authoring and if I could design some problems for it. I didn't hesitate to accept, since I respected him a lot, and it would add at least one more line to my CV anyway. That moment was the start of a mentorship and collegial friendship that has lasted up to this day. During the course of this relationship, I have learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life, and I have always felt fortunate to benefit from an excellent mentor and a great human being.

A couple months after I started at Penn State, a friend sent me audio files of the 1989 Massey Lectures that later became this book. For the past six years, through projects and pandemics, I've carried them around on my phone. I return to Franklin's words for grounding, inspiration, and realignment. I hope this book will provide the same for others.

The book shows how interesting, predictive and straightforward organic chemistry can be.

This book served as a foundation from which my academic career was launched. My co-author and the writing process itself inspired me to take on bigger professional challenges throughout my career with the ultimate goal of leaving the world in a better place than I found it.

I received How Children Fail as a gift for my undergraduate graduation. This book is an indelible part of my transformation from music student to music teacher. As a beginning music teacher, my perspective on who, why, and how I should serve in public schools was greatly affected by this classic text. As a teacher, and later, as a researcher, this book helped me discover how responsibility, creativity, and listening are the key components to a successful teacher-learner partnership.

This book overturned the way I imagined the visible world. I read it in a single afternoon, sitting on a park bench in New York City in April of 2001. More than any work of scholarship, it challenged the way I conceived of cities and architecture by asking me to ponder how the built environment both conceals and reveals traces of its human history.

As a lover of Naples, I have always felt a kinship with other enthusiasts of the city.  Shirley Hazzard understands this wonderful, chaotic, dirty, beautiful place as well as any living person.  In conversations with her in Naples and New York, she and I have shared many stories about the siren city.  These essays distill the essence of many such conversations held with countless others over the years.  Written by her and her late husband, Francis Steegmuller, this lyric and beautiful work is one of the greatest love letters to a place that I know.

Motivation and Leadership at Work was the primary text for the first organizational behavior course I took during my master’s degree at The London School of Economics. I spent countless hours reading, underlining, and highlighting this volume. I still have my dog-eared and worn copy on my bookshelf today. I remember fondly my peers and professors from the LSE, and I dedicate this book to this fine group of scholars and good-natured souls.

This book opened my eyes both to how exciting and how poisonous a research environment can be. It also shows how history can be written in a way that minimizes or ignores the accomplishments and contributions of women and people in lesser positions of power more broadly. In this case, the riveting narrative of the history of the discovery of DNA, seen through the distorting lens of James Watson (who received the Nobel Prize for its discovery), marginalizes Rosalind Franklin’s crucial contributions.

Transformative learning, a theory of meaning-making and change of perspective, was introduced to the field of adult education in 1978. Since that time, transformative learning has inspired a significant body of research and theory. This volume continue the work begun over 20 years ago-revealing the impact of transformative learning on the theory and practice of adult education.

It changed my view.

When this book first came out in 1989 I was in college and studying abroad in Seville, Spain. I was studying languages—Spanish and Arabic, and history—medieval and art, at the Universidad de Sevilla. I was reading hundreds of pages in Spanish each week and in my exhaustion, sought out an English-language guilty-pleasure read. I bought a copy of this book at a local English-language bookstore and was instantly transfixed. I read the entire book to the detriment of sleep, study and social interaction.

The book is a long metaphor for the beginnings of the enlightenment and hope for mankind. As the main characters build a new style of cathedral, in which the space is open, filled with light and built on new scientific insights, so is the medieval society in which the story takes place. The book is a story of the triumph of science, reason, ingenuity and perseverance over dogma, fundamentalism and fanaticism. Throughout the book, the main characters find new ways to do, create, and build something that breaks with tradition, yet yields a better practice or product. These same main characters are confronted by evil in the form of religious fanaticism and dogma, traditional blind adherence, greed, and jealousy, and yet persevere in their efforts to build something better. These characters also struggle against the hierarchical structure of medieval society, suffering under the unjust nature of the feudal system and attempting to work around and bend these strictures.

Twenty-one years later, I believe that this book has affected my choice of career. I am now a public informatician, an academic with expertise in social research methods and social theory and I apply these tools to the study of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their context of development, implementation, and use. Technologies are created, adopted, and used by groups, organizations, institutions, and societies in patterned behavior, which has implications for both the institution and the technology.

These technologies are mediated via stratified groups and often are imbued with power beyond their function. I often see the world in stratified layers and classes, as oppositional and conflicted, and I am comfortable with the role of academic-activist and public agent. My scholarship of public informatics is focused on problems faced by public and non-profit institutions and their work toward a public good. The problems that concern me are those endemic to the public sphere, the lack of and management of scarce resources, sharing materials and information, and increasingly, the need to play competitively alongside private industry.

This book drew me from literature to art and art history in graduate school. It was sophisticated yet accessible, and it convinced me that works of art are not only marvels to behold but also enigmas to be solved. The answers to those enigmas tell us how we perceive, depict, and (re)shape the world we live in.

Arthur Schlesinger describes Robert Kennedy as an individual who continued to grow and develop in response to challenges and adversity. In doing so, Robert Kennedy become a champion of the less fortunate and he inspired an entire generation. I read this book while I was in college, and the inspirational message of Robert Kennedy's life is one that still influences me today.

At the Mind's Limits is a powerful book in which Jean Amery puts into the proper perspective the travails that one faces on a daily basis. Furthermore, he reminds the reader that one must always do what is right as oposed to what is expedient or popular, and that one must never appease that which is wrong. This book is neither easy to read nor pleasant, but the reader will find that this work is of great moral value.

Rumi's poetry, originally penned in Persian, has transcended time and boundaries, resonating with countless souls across the ages. The book is a collection that captures the essence of Rumi's timeless wisdom, love, and spiritual insights. Just as Rumi's verses bridge cultures, this book symbolizes the connections I seek to create between my passions in art, technology, and academia.

This book embodies the elegance of a master, the passion of a discoverer, the lucidity of a teacher, and above all an interpretation of a mathematical theory that is at once dramatic, radical, and exalted.

My selection of Craig Wright's The Maze and the Warrior was motivated by two primary factors, both of which had a strong and direct influence on the early development of my career. First of all, as my Yale University doctoral dissertation advisor, Craig Wright served as an effective mentor, guiding me at all stages of my evolution from a graduate student to a young faculty member. Secondly, The Maze and the Warrior is an example of what I consider to be some of the most exciting recent scholarship. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book examines the spiritual and symbolic meanings of the labyrinth. Specifically, it traces the theological implications of the maze and investigates their significance in architecture, music, dance, and the visual arts. Although written by a musicologist, The Maze and the Warrior is an exciting example of the type of work that goes well beyond strict disciplinary boundaries.

As a firm believer in the importance of student mentorship and in the value of interdisciplinary studies, The Maze and the Warrior was an obvious choice when asked to select a book that has had some special meaning. It serves as a reminder of how the excellent example set by a mentor - both as a scholar and as a dedicated teacher - can have a powerful and lasting influence.

This book, published in the year I started my PhD, provided the foundation for my work on tendon mechanics and sparked my fascination with the boundless complexity of the human body's most abundant protein and primary structural constituent.

This is one of the first comprehensive books to illustrate the complex public health issue of obesity during the transition to motherhood. I co-wrote the chapter "Obesity and Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Postpartum: Evidence, Guidelines, and Recommendations" with my colleague and friends, Drs. Kelly Evenson and Lisa Chasan-Taber, both amazing women working hard to combat the obesity epidemic in women. This book has such important professional and personal meaning to me. I wrote the chapter during a period of time when I had just received my first NIH R01 grant on managing gestational weight gain in obese pregnant women, took on an administrative role as professor in charge of the undergraduate program in the department of Kinesiology, was grieving the death of my father who had just passed away from prostate cancer, and I was caring for our newborn baby (our third child). This book will forever remind me of strength, patience, and persistence. My promotion to full professor would not have been possible without the love and support of my husband, Jon, and our three children, Michael, Brodan, and Ellorie, strength of my soul sister, Amy Frank, and the inspiration of my mentors, Drs. Nancy Williams, Linda Collins, Leann Birch, and Barbara Rolls.

An earlier edition played an important role in the development of a key research area for me. That research area is the transformation of common statistical tools for one-dimensional data to be used for two-dimensional data.

Tommy's Honour gives the reader an insight into the early days of golf, demonstrates how sport has acted as a catalyst in the breakdown of social barriers, and puts a face on the lives and times of two of the founding giants of the game.

This novel is built around the modern history of golf in Scotland, and the relationship between two of golf's most talented founding professionals, "Old Tom" and "Young Tom" Morris. The story, based on historical fact, takes us back to the mid-1800s and vividly describes the lives and times of a father and son who through their accomplishments became two of golf's most storied and honored figures.

The book also illustrates the pervasive social-class structure between the landed gentry who were the members of such golf clubs as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews, and golf professional/greens-keepers who could only be workers and never members despite their level of accomplishment as players. This social dynamic is played out through the relationship of "Old Tom" and "Young Tom," as "Old Tom" always knew his place and "Young Tom" rebelled against the status quo. Over time however, as "gentlemen" (amateurs) and "players" (professionals) competed with one another, the game helped to narrow the gap between the social classes as the ethos of "we are all equal on the playing field and in the grave" helped to break down social barriers, at least in the sporting world. Through competition with the "gentlemen," "players" were able to demonstrate that they could adhere to the rules, and also exhibit one of the true characteristics of a gentlemen, fair play.

Explicating the meaning of a concept lies at the core of all scientific endeavors. This book tells us how to do that with precision and certainty. This book had a profound influence on me ever since my graduate school days. It transformed me from a journalist to a scientist and from a writer to a thinker. Today, I use this in my research methods class as the primary reference for an assignment asking students to explicate a concept for the purpose of operationalizing an abstract idea so that we can study it empirically. They tell me that this book has not only taught them how to define terms for use in research, but, has also come in handy in other contexts (such as arguing a case in court based on explication of certain terms used in legal doctrines and contracts). Ultimately, this book is about a way of thinking with disciplined clarity and building a sound scientific mind in the process.

I first read this book as a graduate student and, at the time, had no idea how important it would be to my thinking about gendered and raced embodiment. Dewey's concept of habit explains how the habits that make up an individual self are formed in dynamic relationship with their social, political, economic, physical ,and other environments. In a male and white privileged world, this means that all people tend to form sexist and racist habits in varying ways. But it also means that those habits are some of the very tools with which sexism and racism can be challenged.

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Capra influenced the way I perceive causal and binary results, and expanded my vision to examine relationships between and among possible options. Inspired by Chief Seattle, he says, "This we know. All things are connected ... Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. We are a strand in the web of life." I see connections in interdisciplinary research by using systems thinking; and this book has inspired my career in qualitative and mixed methods research.

This book was one of the texts we spent quite a bit of time with during my MFA at Tyler School of Art. It is an excellent foundation for addressing questions that are revealed when one chooses to stray from tradition into areas of innovation and technology.

Turkish by Jaklin Kornfilt, provides a thorough and deeply analytic account of Turkish in general, and its morphology in particular. It makes one want to learn Turkish to better understand the complex interrelationships between morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. The thoroughness of the descriptions and analyses for Turkish also makes salient certain linguistic phenomena in other languages of the world--with regard to syntactic/morphological/pragmatic similarities as well as differences.

Arrowsmith is one of the acclaimed books of Sinclair Lewis that earned him a Pulitzer Prize. For me, this book is significant at several levels. It was the first book in English that I read. It accurately portrays the struggle of physician scientists between the economic forces that drive one to clinical practice and the passion for science and experimentation. For me, in a way, it has turned out to be at many levels prophetic of my own life.

The emergence of Atari inspired a generation of children and young adults to explore computing technology as both an entertainment and creative medium. This book, written by a central figure of Atari’s heyday as well as its decline, provides great insight into the corporate, technical, creative, and human elements that intersected in the creation of a new entertainment medium. My earliest computing experience came from these early games and greatly impacted the path I followed.

One of three modern references on homological algebra, Gelfand & Manin is one of my favorite mathematics books. It was the first book to give a detailed exposition of the derived categories introduced by Grothendieck and Verdier in the 1960s. The language is abstract, elegant and really powerful -- mathematics at its best. I find the numerous included examples hinting at applications of the theory truly inspiring.

During my undergrad in Middle East studies at Ben Gurion University in Israel, I took a course on Iran, to make sense of Ahmadinejad’s chaotic presidency. I considered myself an informed citizen, yet when I read this book in one sitting, I learned for the first time about the Anglo-American coup against Mosaddeq and Iran’s democracy. I thought that this historic episode should become better publicly known. It also got me thinking: What else don't I know? So I became a historian of modern Iran.

I first read this book as a newly minted PhD and budding soil scientist. It had a more profound influence on my thinking and how I approached my career than did all the textbooks I labored through as a graduate student — including Daniel Hillel's classic soil physics textbook. In Out of the Earth Hillel traces how the demise of several great civilizations through the sweep of history can be connected to mismanagement and squandering of their soil resources. He follows this with several lessons for our modern civilization, which seems intent on repeating history. Reading this book deepened my reverence of this common stuff we call soil and compelled a career with a goal of keeping us from repeating this history.

Gardens Are for People has been a standard on the bookshelves of landscape architects and garden designers since its first edition was published in 1955. Thomas Church's description of outdoor rooms and his process of creating landscapes based upon site conditions and client needs have endured, and still underlay critical concepts employed in contemporary garden design.

Written almost 2,000 years ago by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, this amazing book is still valid today. The original text was probably never intended to be published and contains the collection of Aurelius’ personal reflections on life and the role of a human in the universe. He contemplates what it means to live a good life and how to be humble, patient, generous, and strong in the face of all kinds of difficulties. The book became a classic exposition of principles of Stoic philosophy. I selected this book because it is one of the best books on self-improvement—universal, with keen insights into the human nature.

This book made an indelible impression on me as an as an early career scholar. In it, Patricia Hill Collins captures a portion of the power, mystery, transcendency and intelligence of Black women feminist thinkers. She presents myriad vantage points, lived experiences and philosophical theories that portraiture identities in ways that had not yet been acknowledged, let alone embraced, by mainstream intelligentsia. She broke boarders and transgressed hindrances established to limit the contributions of particularly raced, gendered and classed voices. This work speaks to inclusion, dynamism, and critical consciousness. It supports inquiry and revelation for those interested in honoring traditionally marginalized voices. It shows, still, that Black women's voices, thoughts, feelings and actions are already empowered. They are not waiting for someone to free them from anything. 

This book illustrates how challenging but rewarding it can be to defy the current geographically broad, heavily corporate food system. The system needs to be redesigned to emphasize justice and local communities, and to reduce the immense impact that our production, manufacturing and marketing practices have on the natural environment. In my own research and teaching, this book's message dovetails nicely with my selection at tenure: Big Business, Poor Peoples (Madeley). We need real change.

“She was heaven whilst he pursued her as a star: she cannot be heaven, if she stoops to such a one as he.” Ralph Waldo Emerson – from his essay Nature - 1844

This is a book written by my academic grandfather. My Ph.D. adviser, Dr. David Kronfeld, received his Ph.D. working with Dr. Max Kleiber at the University of California, Davis. Over my years of studying I've found few if any books that captured the emotion, passion and history that are a part of all scientific endeavors. While this book is one of my favorite on the topic of animal energetics, Emerson’s quote above is why I love science and the pursuit of knowledge.

The topic of animal energetics is also an important part of the history of the study of animal nutrition here at Penn State. If you’ve picked up this book, you should also visit the Armsby Calorimeter Museum here on campus, a facility that was designed solely for the purpose of studying aspects of animal nutrition and energetics for over 60 years, and serves as a monument to that work today.

My thesis adviser gave a book to each graduating Ph.D. I am carrying on this tradition with this book about the struggles of cancer patients and cancer therapy development. My lab studies cancer therapy resistance and is developing new cancer therapies. As we work in our labs, it’s important to remember this disease has a significant impact on many lives. As well, I’m now a cancer survivor, so this book has special meaning to me as both a researcher and a survivor.

Calvin reminds me of my sons, who inspire me every day.

 The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the broad range of topics in computer security. It has been a great resource during my first years as an instructor at Penn State, and on occasion, it has been a useful starting point for  some of my  research projects.

Leontyne Price has always been my favorite singer — an example of great singing at its best. Her voluptuous tone is a marvel, but equally inspiring is how her artistry helped to further civil rights. Sing on.

I am an educational psychologist, and I study self-regulation. This text was chosen as my contribution because it represents a cross-section of research in self-regulation. As an educational psychologist my work, by definition, addresses a cross-section of issues in psychology and education as well as research and practice. This text was a representative sample of the thinking that guided my research during my pre-tenure years. This piece also represents the benefits of research at the cross roads of psychology and practice both domestically and abroad. It is an excellent reference for both research and applied psychologists.

This book was written by friends and colleagues from my first job after I finished my master's degree. In particular, the lead author, Dr. Val Chobotov, was a very influential person on my career, and a good friend who is no longer with us. Some of my earliest papers were influenced by his work in orbital debris, and I even had the great opportunity to work directly for him for over five years. I will be forever grateful for the guidance Val gave me early in my career, his support in helping me go back to graduate school to get my Ph.D. and his support in helping me become a professor at Penn State. His mentorship continued until he passed away in 2010.

The rest of the authors also guided my early career, and they all have made significant contributions to the United States through their work on the U.S. military space program. Thanks to Hans for making me a better writer, George for teaching me about orbital perturbations, Jimmy for making me a better computer programmer, Tom for teaching me about Earth-orbit mission design, and Jean for getting me started researching low-thrust trajectory optimization (which later became the subject of my Ph.D. dissertation).

My inspiration to study animal virology came from two sources. One was the book Microbe Hunters, which describes three hundred years in the development of the study of infectious diseases, both bacterial and viral. The second was a talk given by Salvador Luria that described how Max Delbruck recruited a critical mass of scientists to study bacterial viruses in the mid 20th century, leading to rapid progress in investigations of the molecular biology of prokaryotes. The study of animal viruses promised to do the same for the molecular biology of animal cells. For twenty years, Fields Virology has assembled the world's expert virologists to deliver the definitive reference on both of these aspects of the modern science of virology: the study of pathogenesis in the natural host and the molecular mechanisms governing viral life cycles and virus-cell interactions.

Acoustics is one of the most interdisciplinary topics in science and engineering, and this is one of the most important books in acoustics written in the last half century. I have used this book extensively at Penn State both in my teaching and in my research. The author previously was on the Penn State faculty in the early 1990s before moving elsewhere due to family considerations. He was an excellent mentor to me as a young faculty member, and he helped show me the ropes as to how a responsible, scholarly academic should operate.

This 1993 memoir of author Susanna Kaysen’s struggles with mental illness and the mental health system documents the complexities surrounding psychopathology and treatment. The book provides a raw account of what it was like for Ms. Kaysen to be a patient at a world-renowned psychiatric facility, McLean Hospital, in the late 1960’s. In so doing, it raises countless questions about the nature of mental illness, the boundaries of normalcy, the utility of hospitalization, and the effectiveness of drug treatments. And while I can reflect back on these lessons learned, what I remember most from the first time I picked up Girl, Interrupted is being fully captivated. In reading Ms. Kaysen’s account of her experience and those of her fellow patients, I was transported to another world I found both fascinating and daunting. It was that intrigue that prevented me from putting the book down and inspired me to pursue a career in clinical psychology. Two years later I found myself working as a research assistant in the very same halls of McLean Hospital, in awe that I had managed to transport myself within the pages of this powerful story. It was not coincidence that brought me there, but the love for a field of study sparked by Kaysen’s memoir.  The passion for clinical psychology that this book ignited long ago continues to this day in my role as a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor in Penn State’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program.

This book opened the door of finance to me when I was still an undergraduate student. As a student major in engineering, I was fascinated by the wonderland introduced by Merton and excited to see how mathematical and engineering tools can be applied to solve finance problems. This book influenced my decision to switch from engineering to finance and a large part of my career.

Popular for its highly visual, straightforward approach, Cellular and Molecular Immunology delivers an accessible yet thorough understanding of this active and fast-changing field. Drs. Abul K. Abbas, Andrew H. Lichtman, and Shiv Pillai present key updates in this new edition to cover the latest developments in antigen receptors and signal transduction in immune cells, mucosal and skin immunity, cytokines, leukocyte-endothelial interaction, and more. With additional online features, this is an ideal resource for medical, graduate and undergraduate students of immunology who need a clear, introductory text for immunology courses.

I chose this particular book which has the greatest impact on my learning, research, and teaching.

“Golden Kingdoms” was published as a compendium to a museum exhibition of the same title displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having reached a "mid-career" intellectual plateau, I found this exhibition inspirational. It reminded me why I fell in love with ancient Amerindian visual culture as an undergraduate student. The catalog is a stunning object of art in and of itself, but also includes smart essays that undergraduates will find enjoyable and accessible.

There is a fascinating connection between abstract mathematical theories and measurable physical phenomena. The emerging complexity of many-particles in interaction demands new mathematical theories. A mathematical description of a system often suggests or predicts new phenomena never measured before. This book beautifully describes an area where this interplay has been the active backbone of many successful stories in many-particle physics such as superconductivity, magnetism, and Bose condensation. It has been my inspiration since I started reading it in graduate school and its importance grew because over the years the author became my mentor, colleague, and friend.

I first read this book when I was 9 years old. The words of slaves are not tampered with, and drew me to the power of the narrative. Even now, I draw on its inspiration. A truth told with fullness—may we all strive toward that goal.

Nayantara Sahgal wrote Prison and Chocolate Cake when her mother, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and her maternal uncle, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first prime minister of independent India. It is a memoir of a time when her family's support of Satyagraha, Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and non-cooperation that freed a nation, resulted in lengthy terms in prison. My grandparents shared Gandhi's cause when they lived in India, and while there, my mother was a schoolmate of Tara and her sisters. Upon returning to the United States, my grandparents hosted the sisters when they came here to study. I have always been a great admirer of Gandhi, and the themes of peace, local sustainable practices, the power of education, diversity and the dignity of each individual that this book speaks to. A recent visit to India re-connected me with this book which I first read so many years ago and with a bit of family and world history.

 I read this book as a post-doc, engrossed in the daily juggle of managing a young family and a career.  I had an amazing mentor at the time and her influence greatly guided my life's path.  Now as a mentor myself, I've found that women often are best supported by seeing examples of how women succeed.  This book provides those examples as National Academy women scientists open up honestly about the course of their careers and family/life balance.  At an individual level, the focus is on how they approached key decisions and opportunities.  As a set, the women highlight the importance of a partner (or social network) and a mentor or role-model who provided a key opportunity at the right time.  But, perhaps most strikingly, none of the women had the same path.  The idea that each women charted her own course through the complicated maze of academic life somehow makes it all more real and possible and encourages us not to conform or be intimidated by others' choices or timelines.  This is freeing.  

The other reason I chose this book is because I can never remember the title.  I always confuse it with the saying my rowing coach had during my undergraduate years, which was "Through the Door" -- the idea that there is a certain point in life where if you push just a little harder you can see the other side.  So, in some sense, the confusion in the title is perfect.

I remember being drawn into this book from the premise: nonfiction author John McPhee took three adventures, including white water rafting, with two people who represented completely different perspectives about the environment. The stories in this book chronicle rich, passionate debates in the presence of the debates’ topics: the natural world itself. This book inspired me to think critically, to observe carefully, to question everything, to remain humble, and to stay fully engaged in practice. In addition, beyond simply chronicling the debate, McPhee takes readers along through the dramatic twists and turns as the three men together try to make it through their adventures, such as getting down the rapids in one piece. (It is fun to read!) Over the years I have found myself in different roles: as a vocal theorist, as the archivist of opinions, and as the instigator of risk-taking "moments." At the end of the day, as a scholar, I hope to leave behind a few essays that engage readers, encouraging them to argue, consider, and challenge themselves and the points of view along the way—while always leaving them to wonder what will happen next.

Dreams of My Father tells the story of Barack Obama’s early life and development and his quest for identity as a multiracial child in the United States and the world. This story examines the role of his mother as a single parent and supported by his grandparents who worked and served the country, along with the role of his father’s extended family. He tells of how his family, both on his mother’s and father’s side, taught him important messages of pride and respect for others, and of the important role of grass-roots community-organizing in helping him to find his place in serving others. He offers a frank and honest depiction of his journey to develop his own thoughts on critical national and international policy issues facing the United States. As a professor who teaches classes on the role of race and ethnicity in human development and family studies, I think this book exemplifies the important role of family and community in the journey to greatness.

This book introduced me to the universe of mathematics beyond high-school calculus and statistics. It offers a whirlwind tour of the ideas that are at the foundations of computer science and mathematical logic, elegantly interlaced with topics in music, visual art, and science that illustrate these ideas. Recursion and self-reference are the guiding themes. Hofstadter does an amazing job of bringing them to life with his own, highly personal takes on the paradoxes that have puzzled philosophers, scientists, and artists for generations.

Hofstadter sets off on an ambitious trek, headed for an explanation of why artificial intelligence may one day come to be. What I enjoyed most about the book, though, were the stops along the way. Gödel, Escher, Bach opened my eyes to the myriad facets of mathematics and the crucial role that computation can play in our understanding of the world. It started me on a path that I, as a computer scientist, am still walking.

Prof. Gessow was one of my teachers and advisors in graduate school at the University of Maryland. He served to inspire and encourage his students, and helped imprint us with his love for and fascination with helicopters. I studied from this book as a student, and taught from this book as a faculty member here at Penn State. It was a priviledge to have known him and his family. He passed away a few years ago and I would appreciate the opportunity to honor him in this way.

This collection of essays dedicated to the Latin literature of Anglo-Saxon England opened my eyes to new vistas of texts and scholarship. The early English learned Latin as a foreign language in schools, and they took to it with an extraordinary vigor that generated an impressive and distinct body of Latin literature, much of it wonderfully strange and intensely learned. Michael Lapidge’s groundbreaking scholarship on Anglo-Latin texts has set the agenda for a generation of Anglo-Saxonists – indeed many of these essays have informed my own research interests and I am sure that they will continue to do so. I also love the style of Lapidge’s writing, how he lays out his evidence and surprises with his conclusions in a way that reminds me of classic detective fiction. The pieces sensibly click into place and something new comes into view. Michael Lapidge is an aglæca lareow for our own age, and this remarkable and rich book, with its plain little title, represents just a part of his growing legacy in Anglo-Saxon studies.

After receiving my master's degree, but still a few years away from my first professional position, Sessions' book helped me to understand how I fit into the larger world as a musical performer. This knowledge sustained me during this sometimes frustrating period. When I became an active performer, I was able to put Sessions' ideas into practice on a daily basis. My fascination with the experience of the music listener eventually led me to become a teacher of "non-musicians." I hope that readers of this book who are music listeners will come to understand that, as audience members, they play a crucial role in the experience of music performance through their active engagement in the listening process and through their emotional response to the music. Without them, there's no reason to compose or to perform.

In order to understand the mind in general and how we perceive, move, think and remember, a variety of modern neuroscience techniques must be used. This book provides inter-disciplinary and inter-methodological approach from molecular/cellular to whole organisms levels to examine complex issues of mind, consciousness and behavior.

This book changed the way I view human existence and set me on a new spiritual journey.

I cannot say that this book has motivated my statistical research. But it has reminded over the years that as academics we are not only scholars, but teachers, mentors and leaders. We use our past and present experiences to inspire new generations to search for and fulfill their potential, and foremost become good human beings. Jovan Du?i?, a renowned Serbian poet, writer, philosopher and a diplomat during the first half of the twentieth century, through his writings (and especially in “Blago Cara Radovana i Jutra sa Leutara” -- King Radovan’s Treasure and Leutar Mornings) has reminded me that we all search for something but will have different paths to finding the treasures we seek. And even when we do not agree with all that is written or said, it is important to carefully consider and offer respect for effort put forth. To many of you the writing in Cyrillic and the Serbian language will be foreign, so here is one translation that likely applies to us all:

“What our minds build, our foolishness tears down; our goodness is overshadowed by our vices, and the fruits of our wisdom by the outbursts of our temperament. For, beyond and above all, our powers are ruled by our weakness.”

“Što uspemo našom pame?u, pokvarimo našom ?udi, a što uspemo našom dobrotom, upropastimo našim porocima, i, najzad, što postignemo svojom mudroš?u, izgubimo našim temperamentom. Jer ima nešto ja?e i presudnije od svih naših sila, a to su naše slabosti.”

It reminds me that we need innovative ideas to help those most in need.

The figure of M. K. Gandhi looms large for any historian of colonial India and of the British Empire. My own work has always consisted of an implicit dialogue with Gandhi and his ideas. The choice of this book is meant both as an acknowledgement of the extent to which Gandhi looms large in my passions as a scholar, and as a source of inspiration for further work that will engage more explicitly with his influence.

My mother instilled in me a love of reading, and to this day, find myself a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction literature. While not connected to geology, my chosen field of research, there is something special to me about this book; I love the way Galeano can tell a story of poverty and suffering with poetry and beauty. He makes me think about the intimacy of our tiniest interactions, the fragility of what we have, and the connection we all have with one another. He also reminds me that there is much more to life than just study for the sake of study, and that our relationships with others are truly the most important legacy we leave behind.

Although many of the issues introduced by Wollstonecraft in this book are not at all controversial in today's society, this certainly was not the case in the late 18th century. Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman, was published posthumously in 1797 and was viewed as a brave critique of how women faired in a male-dominated society. She spoke of the injustices endured by women, but she also juxtaposed those injustices against a backdrop of inflictions placed upon women at the hands of themselves. Wollstonecraft's somewhat harsh call to action on both fronts resonated strongly with me when I first read her work. I had often thought about and encountered both covert and overt sexist attitudes on the part of males, but had not thought as deeply about the self-inflicted wounds that women sometimes impose on themselves, such as allowing one's self-worth to be determined by having a male companion and his approval. Wollstonecraft encouraged women of her generation to seek satisfaction in other relationships as well, such as with one’s children, female companions, and other family members. She also encouraged women to seek some manner of independence and not to get too caught up in emotional and sometimes crippling sentimentality. The author certainly left a mark on the women of her generation and on future generations; to this I can fully attest.

Pine's book, in my opinion, is THE seminal work on mass customization. While many people warned of the pitfalls of mass production, Pine was the first to embrace the paradigm of mass customization and articulate how it redefined businesses in a variety of industries. His book was instrumental in motivating my research on product design and realization in graduate school and has been a constant resource since joining Penn State. In addition to influencing my research, it has impacted my teaching in several ways. I frequently quote vignettes and cases from his book in my undergraduate and graduate classes, and I spend several lectures comparing and contrasting mass production and mass customization in my graduate course using the concepts and principles discussed in his book. For anyone working in product design and realization or striving to improve customer satisfaction, Pine's book is a must read.

It took me no time at all to decide on the single most important text to my research and scholarly pursuits. Grantley’s work here is invaluable, offering a wealth of detailed information about a great number of understudied and undervalued plays. The notes on language use were particularly helpful for my research; without a doubt, my work would have been significantly more difficult if it were not for this reference text. Grantley has done a fine job of cataloging, describing, and analyzing each play; I know that future scholars of early English drama will find this text as useful as I have.

"Oh, that You would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me

and that You would keep me from evil"

?10).

Bruce Wilkinson's book The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life is a little book that has made a great impact on my life and work in recent times. It has reinforced my belief that when I am blessed, I may be a blessing to all the people in my personal life and work.