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Back To: Rao's Faculty Bio

Rao's textbook reaches publishing milestone

By Tom Moone



This past summer, Associate Department Head N. Narayana Rao achieved a rare milestone in the world of academic publishing: Prentice Hall published the fifth edition of his book "Elements of Engineering Electromagnetics," with a year 2000 copyright. Few engineering textbooks see this many editions.

In the preface to this book, Rao illustrates how the nineteenth century's focus on electromechanics was succeeded by the twentieth century's focus on electronics, which is now being succeeded by an emerging focus on photonics (twenty-first century). This fifth edition has been reorganized and revised to help reflect this progression.

For Rao, working on new editions to this text is a never-ending process, owing to his own persistence. "In 1994, the fourth edition came out," said Rao. "I started on the fifth edition right away. Generally, as soon as one edition is finished, I think about the next edition." According to the publisher, the book's usage extends to 42 U.S. universities and dozens of others around the world.

Rao dedicated this fifth edition to the memory of Edward C. Jordan. Jordan was also a well-known author of textbooks, and his book "Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems," first came out in 1950. Jordan was head of the ECE department when Rao became a faculty member in 1965. Rao's dedication reads in part, "In deep appreciation of the profound influence on my professional career by the late Edward C. Jordan, . . . revered head of my department for 25 years (1954-1979)."

Rao decided to dedicate this fifth edition to Jordan because of the influence he had on Rao's career. "It just happened to evolve that I wrote a book in the same field as Jordan's. Because this is the U of I and it is in the same field, I felt that there is a connection between my book and Jordan's book, which came out 50 years ago. I felt this is an appropriate time to recognize the influence he has had on my professional life."

Rao's persistence continues. He remarks that his book is not the most popular, but he asserts that it is the most progressive, which is what he values more than popularity. Rao adds that the most popular books are generally not the most progressive. The next challenge for him is "to make this book the most progressive and the most popular."

(Published in Ingenuity, September, 1999)

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