Faculty book dedications

The university’s core missions focus on promoting learning
and discovery. The College of Engineering’s book dedication initiative provides
a way to capture the multiple dimensions of the learning and discovery
experienced by our own faculty members as they progress through their careers.

When faculty members are promoted to a new faculty rank, the
College invites them to select a book that has had a profound effect on them as
scholars and as human beings. The book may be, but need not be, related to
their research or area of expertise. All selected titles are added to the UIC Library’s
collection bearing a bookplate that recognizes the faculty member and explains
his or her motivation for choosing the book.

We hope this initiative will allow members of the UIC
community to benefit from works that have helped our faculty members along
their professional and personal trajectory. Books dedicated to date are listed
below by academic year. (Note: 2018-2019 promotions are pending approval by the
UIC Board of Trustees.)

2018-2019

The Law of Success In Sixteen Lessons, by Napoleon Hill

This book taught me the importance of clearly defining goals for all important undertakings and always pursuing excellence, which has helped me in my research work. Further, it taught me to try to create opportunities if none are apparent. This has helped me keep an optimistic frame of mind.

Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing Can Help You Win, by Ryan Babineaux and John Krumboltz

Learning from failure provides the way to success. When getting older, we tend to be too cautious to fail and to learn new things. This book helps to conquer the fear of failing.

The Complete Book of Ghazals of Hafez, edited by Sajjad Khojasteh

From Hafez’s poems, I learned many life lessons, including my first engineering lesson—optimization! I realized how a short verse of his poems so elegantly optimizes word arrangements to convey deep messages.

The Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa’di, edited by Shaykh Mushrifuddin Sa‘di of Shiraz, translated by Wheeler M. Thackston

“Be either gracious like the date tree or free like the cedar.” The exhilarating stories of this book combine the nectar of elegance with the bitter medicine of advice.

Connections, by James Burke

I read James Burke’s book while in middle school. It showed an interconnected version of history and innovation very different from what I was taught, and I’m sure it led to the interdisciplinary focus in my research.

Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

This book helped me understand the historical and human contexts of removal/deletion of information and capabilities that are central to my research. It also motivated my broader socio-technical focus within computer science research.

Alfred & Agnes, by Frieda Stiehl

Frieda Stiehl tells the story of the life of her German immigrant parents, Alfred and Agnes, set against the backdrop of dramatic political and social events. The book illustrates that many developments in life are not only determined by personal decisions but also by historical events that are out of one’s own control. Alfred and Agnes are fortunate that Frieda has preserved the memory of their extraordinary lives in a compelling narration, while the memory of most persons is lost after the passing of the people who immediately knew them. While reading the book it occurred to me that I am pleased that my scientific contributions are documented in publications. But it also made me ask whether there is something else or more important that I want to be remembered for.

Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom

Recently my 7-year-old son has been asking about death and expressing his fear of death. My answer to him was basically a paraphrase of what Professor Morrie Schwartz says in this book: “As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty-two, you’d always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

Tales of Pirx the Pilot, by Stanislaw Lem

Through the world of science fiction, this book opened my imagination to the endless possibilities that technology can create and how it can shape our future. The wonders I experienced reading this with my grandfather in what then was still communist Poland shaped my desire to become and engineer and then scientist working toward shaping that future. Lem is a masterful story teller, sending the reader on an unparalleled journey through the cosmos.

The Complete Divan of Hafez, translated by Paul Smith

This book was like a torch showing me the path to success when lost in darkness. The spiritual poems in this book will help you to speak to your heart openly and see your overarching life objectives.

New and Selected Poems of Thomas Lux: 1975-1995, by Thomas Lux

I belong to an extended family of poets (and a few scientists) who were transformed by the mentorship and generosity of Gurudev Thomas Lux. He taught me the importance of mastering your craft as a writer, the significance of meticulous rewrites and revisions, as well as how to read the published work both to educate and inspire oneself. I know I have become a better poet, a better writer, and a better scientist by paying attention to his advice and his way of reading, writing, being. Most importantly, I learned how to be a good teacher. I seek to help students like he did, and emulate the candid delight, that joyful grin, the open-armed, honest pleasure he took in the progress of his students.

The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien

This book taught me some essential values for life, in particular, hope and perseverance; trust and friendship.

Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in Combinatorics and Geometry, by Jiri Matousek

This book presents a surprising link between disparate areas of mathematics. It serves as a reminder that scientific discoveries can transcend classification.