E. Joseph Billo

I have to state up front that I am NOT a chemist. I do work with chemistry faculty and students, and have a university reference librarian's understanding of the field. My BA was in Psychology (looks embarrassed) at UCLA (looks less embarrassed) with extensive statistical and research methodology coursework. But, I definitely consider myself more of an Excel wonk, a tool I've used consistently since about 1987 when version 2.05 came out for Windows. I've used this for a wide variety of tasks for which I think most users wouldn't even consider, e.g., text manipulation and analysis, database creation, data integrity analysis, etc. Though the thrust of this work is "for chemists," I found myself easily able to understand, appreciate, and learn from the text. Chapter 15 "Nonlinear Regression Using the Solver" actually made me sputter "Ah ha!" The Solver is now installed in my copy of Excel 2007. I'm not sure I should feel ashamed not knowing about this powerful Excel Add-in, or thankful that I discovered it through reading this book.

Having recently used Excel's database features for a large project, I was pleased that an entire chapter is devoted to that subject alone. This chapter is probably one of the best examples for recommending this work beyond chemists. The explanations on defining and using selection criteria was a litmus test I used to see if the author knows his stuff. Yes, he does. The author, E. Joseph Billo, is a retired chemistry professor (Boston College) who has taught short courses to "Scientists and Engineers" and has produced a work, 2007's [[ASIN:0471387347 Excel for Scientists and Engineers: Numerical Methods]], that I will be seeking out (and hoping that it gets updated as well).

As a third edition, this is a mature work which has become refined and enlarged. Originally published in 1997 at a svelte 454 pages, it expanded to 483 four years later; it is now a very dense 732 pages, including some of the most useful appendices I've ever seen. Appendix C, "The Alphabetical List of Selected Worksheet Functions," is something I should have had lying around in paper for some time now.

Again, I have to underscore the utility of this work beyond chemistry, especially for those who are already proficient with Excel. I currently use Excel 2007 and this book is a keeper. I have no qualms giving 5 out of 5 stars. This is quality work.

Disclaimer: This reviewer received a free copy of this book, with CD-ROM, via the Amazon Vine Program.… (más)