The University of Illinois (ePub)

The founding of the university in 1867 created a unique community in what had been a prairie. Within a few years, this creative mix of teachers and scholars produced innovations in agriculture, engineering and the arts that challenged old ideas and stimulated dynamic new industries. Projects ranging from the Mosaic web browser to the discovery of Archaea and pioneering triumphs in women's education and wheelchair accessibility have helped shape the university's mission into a double helix of innovation and real-world change. These essays explore the university's celebrated accomplishments and historic legacy, candidly assessing both its successes and its setbacks. Experts and students tell the eye-opening stories of campus legends and overlooked game-changers, of astonishing technical and social invention, of incubators of progress as diverse as the Beckman Institute and Ebertfest. Contributors: James R. Barrett, George O. Batzli, Claire Benjamin, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Jimena Canales, Stephanie A. Dick, Poshek Fu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Lillian Hoddeson, Harry Liebersohn, Claudia Lutz, Kathleen Mapes, Vicki McKinney, Elisa Miller, Robert Michael Morrissey, Bryan E. Norwood, Elizabeth H. Pleck, Leslie J. Reagan, Susan M. Rigdon, David Rosenboom, Katherine Skwarczek, Winton U. Solberg, Carol Spindel, William F. Tracy, and Joy Ann Williamson-Lott.|
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Preface: Changing the World from a Very Small Place
Introduction: A University for Learning and Labor
Part One. Singular People: Remarkable Individuals Who Triggered Innovation at the University
Isabel Bevier: Bringing Science into the Home
Arthur Palmer: The Chemistry of Safe Water
Austin Harding: Inventor of the School Band
Victor E. Shelford: Environmental Pioneer
Katharine Sharp: Shattering the Glass Ceiling of Library Leadership
Ven Te Chow: Hydrologist, Educator, and Rainmaker
Stuart Pratt Sherman: Literary Criticism Comes to the University
Ruth Maslow and Oscar Lewis: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Thomas K. Cureton: The Father of Physical Fitness
Tim Nugent: "Wheelchair Students" and the Creation of the Most Accessible Campus in the World
Renée and Henry Kahane: Exploring Language's History and Structure
Alta Gwinn Saunders: The Invention of Business English
Shozo Sato: Reinventing Kabuki Theater
John Bardeen: Citizen of Science
Carl Woese: Discovery of a Third Form of Life
Clarence Shelley: The Campaign to Diversify the University
Part Two. World-Changing Inventions: Created and Nurtured on the University of Illinois Campus
Affordable Higher Education
Inventing Professional Architecture
The Hillel Foundation: The Invention of University Diversity
Clarence W. Alvord: The Illinois Historical Survey and the Invention of Local History
Beyond Women's Studies
John Laughnan: Sweet Corn Revolution
Remarkable Animals: Illini Nellie and Big Al
"2 + 2 = green": Innovation in Experimental Music at the University of Illinois
The Beginning of Public Broadcasting
Joseph McVicker Hunt: Invention of Early Childhood Education
Samuel Kirk: Birth of Special Education
The Invention of MRI
Nick Holonyak Jr.: Development of LED Lights
Mosaic: The First Point-and-Click Internet Browser
Superfluidity
Bottled Sunshine: Discovering and Harnessing the Power of Photosynthesis
Interdisciplinary Scholarship at the College of Law
Part Three. Places of Innovation: Where Ideas and People Meet to Produce Innovation
The Morrow Plots
Bringing Innovation to the Farm through the Farmers' Institutes
The Story of the University of Illinois Library
Improvising an Innovation: Stadium Terrace Housing and the Arrival of "Nontraditional Students"
Across the Pacific: The University of Illinois and China
The ILLIAC Computers: Product and...