29 October 2004

George Hrabovsky and his world of books

Forrest M. Mims III

George E. Hrabovsky writes two columns and various features for The Citizen Scientist. No matter where your scientific interests lie, George's latest installments of "Mathematics Corner" (15 October 2004) and "Mind of a Theorist" (this issue) are worth a look.

George invested considerable time preparing these two columns, which list hundreds of books that he personally recommends--and owns. Many of these books are available free online. (See "Backscatter" in this issue.) Others are reasonably priced Dover classics, while others are more expensive works.

Normally there would not be time to prepare such lengthy columns for a single issue of The Citizen Scientist. But these columns are very significant, for they represent a directory to a vast repository of knowledge and a kind of virtual card catalog for free books available online.

These two columns also demonstrate the breadth of George Hrabovsky's scientific interests and the idea factory that simmers behind the glasses and the photograph above. When he is not writing columns and articles for The Citizen Scientist, George serves as an adjunct professor and presides as president of Madison Area Science and Technology (MAST), the SAS branch in Madison, Wisconsin. His specialties include theoretical physics, astrophysics, meteorology, mathematics, scientific computation, science education, biochemistry and microbiology. He and his wife Dianna are avid storm chasers, as dramatically demonstrated by their reports in The Citizen Scientist about a tornado that formed directly over them last summer. (See "A remarkable storm" by George and "My account of the 23 June 2004 Madison, Wisconsin, tornado" by Dianna.) Dianna's latest installment of "The Curious Eye" is also in this issue of The Citizen Scientist.

Thanks, George, for preparing the vast resource these two columns provide. You reminded me about some classic volumes. And you inspired me to visit my own bookshelf and dust off a few cherished volumes. I hope members of the Society for Amateur Scientists, and visitors to The Citizen Scientist, will bookmark these columns and refer back to them when they want to seriously pursue an area of science that you have covered.