Our Bookshelf

Adrianna Renescu is one of our members.

In this dramatic page turner built around powerful, morally complex characters, Renescu takes the reader across continents, from the Carpathians to the Andes, from Berlin to San Francisco, from Buenos Aires to Rome. THE DEATH OF RAFAEL tells the story of opposing destinies caught in a web of guilt and secrets. This is a tale of loss and heartbreak, fear and despair, and ultimately hope and redemption.

Dr. Virginia Trimble is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. She is a frequent contributor to astronomy and physics journals.

Dr. Aniruddh Patel is a leading neuroscience researcher, currently at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. "Music, Language, and the Brain" is the definitive work in the study of the relationship between music and language.

Sigma Xi O.C. member Arnold Goodman, Ph.D. is a co-founder of the Statistical Analysis and Data Mining. This is the Journal that encourages collaboration across disciplines, communicating novel data mining and statistical techniques to both novices and experts involved in the analysis of data from practical problems.

Dr. Goodman is also a co-founder of Interface Symposia 1967. Interface is a society interested in the interface between computing science and statistics.

Francisco Ayala, Ph.D., is grounded in both science and religion.

His talk at Sigma Xi O.C. on January 19th, 2010, was on this topic.

He is the winner of the 2010 Templeton Prize (he gave the $1.5 million to charity). He is currently Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine.

This book is a scholarly attempt to reconcile religion and evolution. It offers an introduction to Darwin's theory and evolutionary biology.

"The Wolves of Pavlava" by Adrianna Renescu, is a novel of intrigue, covering a span of three decades, from the last days of Communist rule in Romania to the present day. It involves the Vatican's search for a possible new saint, and the conflict between the Church and the Party.

Fred Johnson, Ph.D., another of our members, is Professor Emeritus and Former Chair of Physics at California State University, Fullerton, CA.

His talk at Sigma Xi O.C. was an “Forensic Accident Reconstruction.”

He serves as an expert witness in cases involving product liability. This book explains the physics and mathematics of slips and falls, ladders, and the difficulties of getting accurate measurements of friction.