Preface: Changing the world from a very small place -- Introduction: A university for learning and labor -- Singular people : remarkable individuals who triggered innovation at the University of Illinois and beyond. Isabel Bevier: bringing science into the home / Elisa Miller -- Arthur Palmer: the chemistry of safe water / Kelsey Reinker -- Austin Harding: inventor of the school band / Tim Brown -- Victor E. Shelford: environmental pioneer / George O. Batzli and Jeffrey D. Brawn -- Katharine Sharp: shattering the glass ceiling of library leadership / Nicholas Hopkins -- Ven Te Chow: hydrologist, educator, and rainmaker / Marcelo H. Garcia -- Stuart Pratt Sherman: literary criticism comes to the university / Kelsey Reinker -- Ruth Maslow Lewis and Oscar Lewis: giving voice to the voiceless / Susan M. Rigdon -- Thomas K. Cureton: the father of physical fitness / Rafal Ciolcosz -- Timothy Nugent: "wheelchair students" and the creation of the most accessible campus in the world / Leslie J. Reagan -- Renée and Henry Kahane: exploring language's history and structure / Kelsey Reinker -- Alta Gwinn Saunders: the invention of business English / Carol Spindel -- Shozo Sato: reinventing Kabuki theater / Nicholas Hopkins -- John Bardeen: citizen of science / Vicki McKinney and Lillian Hoddeson -- Carl Woese: the discovery of a third domain of life / Steven Lenz and Nicholas Hopkins -- Clarence Shelley: the campaign to diversify the university / Joy Ann Williamson-Lott -- World-changing inventions : created and nurtured on the University of Illinois campus, then spread to the world. Affordable higher education / James R. Barrett -- Sound on film / Alexis Clinebell -- Inventing professional architecture / Bryan E. Norwood -- Hillel Foundation: the invention of university diversity / Nicholas Hopkins -- Clarence W. Alvord: the Illinois historical survey and the invention of local history / Robert Michael Morrissey -- Beyond women's studies / Kristen Allen -- John Laughnan: sweet corn revolution / William F. Tracy -- Remarkable animals: Illini Nellie and Big Al / Nicholas Hopkins -- "2 + 2 = green": innovation in experimental music at the University of Illinois / David Rosenboom -- Beginning of public broadcasting / Kristen Allen -- Joseph McVicker Hunt: the invention of early childhood education / Elizabeth H. Pleck -- Samuel Kirk: the birth of special education / Nicholas Hopkins -- Invention of MRI / Katherine Skwarczek -- Nick Holonyak Jr.: the development of LED lights / Steven Lenz -- Mosaic: the first point-and-click Internet browser / Jimena Canales -- Superfluidity / Tim Brown -- Bottled sunshine: discovering and harnessing the power of photosynthesis / Claire Benjamin and Claudia Lutz -- Interdisciplinary scholarship at the College of Law / Michael Hughes -- Places of innovation : where ideas and people meet to produce innovation. Morrow Plots / Kathleen Mapes -- Bringing innovation to the farm through the Farmers' Institutes / Kristen Allen -- Story of the University of Illinois Library / Winton U. Solberg -- Improvising an innovation: stadium terrace housing and the arrival of "nontraditional students" / Lauren Tokarewich -- Across the Pacific: the University of Illinois and China / Poshek Fu -- ILLIAC computers: product and source of innovation (and controversy) / Rafal Ciolcosz -- Krannert Center for the Performing Arts / Harry Liebersohn -- Ebertfest: where Hollywood comes to the prairie / Tim Brown -- Innovation across disciplines: the Institute for Genomic Biology / Nicholas Hopkins -- Business instructional facility: designed for innovation / Jonathan Binkley and Kelsey Reinker -- Beckman Institute: imagining interdisciplinarity / Stephanie A. Dick -- Nevada Street: a center for the study of race and ethnicity / Frederick E. Hoxie and Michael Hughes