Portraits of Great American Scientists - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573929328 ISBN 13: 9781573929325

Publisher: Prometheus, 2001

Synopsis

How does a person become a scientist? What special talents, aptitudes, and qualities of character are needed? Why is science important and how should it be used by society? There is no better way to learn about scientists and the whole scientific enterprise than by talking to scientists themselves.

These fifteen biographies, written by promising young students from the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, reveal the many interesting human factors that influenced the lives of successful scientists: how they chose their individual career paths, what obstacles they had to overcome along the way, and where they think science will lead society in the future. They also convey the excitement of discovery that both these established scientists and their young biographers share as they explore their particular scientific interests.

The various biographies cover a wide range of fascinating personalities and their disciplines: Clifford Geertz (cultural anthropology), Mary Claire-King (genetics), Marvin Minsky (artificial intelligence), Story Musgrave and Sally Ride (astronautics), Steven Pinker (psychology/cognitive science), F. Sherwood Rowland (chemistry), Vera Rubin (astronomy), Paul Sereno (paleontology), George Smoot (astrophysics), Charles Townes and Edward Witten (physics), Geerat Vermeij (geology), E. O. Wilson (sociobiology), and Dawn Wright (oceanography).

This inspiring project, all directed by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman, is especially welcome at a time when there is widespread concern about the declining level of scientific literacy among Americans. Truly fascinating in content and presentation, these inspiring biographies show that science is a many-faceted and thrilling voyage of discovery.

About this title

About the Author:

Leon M. Lederman, Nobel Laureate (Batavia, IL) is the author of Beyond the God Particle, Quantum Physics for Poets, and Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe (coauthored with Christopher T. Hill), as well as The God Particle (with Dick Teresi). He has served as the editor of Portraits of Great American Scientists and a contributor to Science Literacy for the Twenty-First Century. He is formerly the Resident Scholar at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and Pritzker Professor of Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and he is director emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Judith A. Scheppler, Ph.D. (Chicago, IL), is the Coordinator of Student Inquiry and Director of the Grainger Center for Imagination and Inquiry at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She is also the coauthor of Biotechnology Explorations: Applying the Fundamentals.

Review:

""Creative.... Readers of this book cannot help but get caught up in the students' voyages of discovery.... A powerful introduction to the challenges and the joys of doing science.” -American Reference Books Annual 2003 “The introduction by Lederman should be required reading for all high school science teachers and students...[a] rare offering that talks to kids about something besides their problems.... [It] delightfully demonstrates that not all scientists are nerdy white men wearing thick eyeglasses.” -San Jose Mercury News “This book comes along at a time of growing science illiteracy among Americans. If you know a young, potential scientist, this book would make a fine...gift with its insightful and inspiring stories.” -Bookviews.com “A well-written, very interesting, book.” -Science Books & Films

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1573929328
• ISBN 13: 9781573929325
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Lederman Leon M.