Mineralogy

This student-friendly text is written in a casual, jargon-free style to present a modern introduction to mineralogy. It emphasizes real-world applications and the history and human side of mineralogy. The author approaches the subject by explaining the larger, understandable topics first, and then explaining why the “little things” are important for understanding the larger picture.

Booknews

This text for an undergraduate mineralogy course de-emphasizes jargon and taxonomy in favor of context and understanding. Topics are covered beginning with the big picture and ending with details and theory. To put mineralogy in context, there is material on petrology, chemistry, and other sciences not normally considered mineralogy, and the history and human side of mineralogy and its key figures is included. Learning features include color and b&w photos, thought questions, and an extensive glossary. This second edition contains more material relating mineralogy to the everyday world, and can be packaged with a CD-ROM containing some 400 mineral photos. The author is affiliated with the University of North Dakota. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dexter Perkins received his B.S. from the University of Rochester in 1973, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1979. After graduate school, his first faculty position was at the University of Chicago. He came to the University of North Dakota in 1981 where he is currently a Professor of Geology. During the past 25 years Perkins has had several 1-year appointments at European universities. Perkins is a past editor of American Mineralogist and the Journal of Geoscience Education (since 2000).

Perkins’s regular teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate mineralogy and petrology. He is also an active geology researcher. He has published almost 100 articles in professional journals and has written three books. Past research focused on high-temperature minerals and rocks; his current research concerns xenoliths from the Southwestern United States, and science education reform. So, he is both doing basic scientific research and contributing to educational research.