Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library will host an exhibition that highlights recently published books by USU authors. The exhibit, presented in conjunction with USU’s annual Research Week, features books and authors honored in the 2010 edition of “Research Matters,” an annual publication highlighting research output at USU. “With this exhibition, the library seeks to celebrate our faculty’s contributions to human knowledge as well as the library’s role in preserving, maintaining and making available the scholarly record,” said Jennifer Duncan, head of collection development at Merrill-Cazier Library and the exhibition’s coordinator. The exhibit opens March 28 and continues through June 26 in the library’s atrium. A reception honoring the authors is Thursday, April 1, 4-6 p.m. at Merrill-Cazier Library. At 5:30 p.m., three faculty authors will speak briefly about their publications, providing an overview of the diversity produced in book form at Utah State University. The reception and talks are free and open to all. The exhibit includes 21 books by authors who represent 13 academic departments at USU. The books and the subjects demonstrate the depth and breadth of research underway at the university, Duncan said. The books cover such diverse topics as genome mapping, the 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the anthropology of childhood, cyber-physical systems, weapons of mass destruction and strategic culture and climate warming. The April 1 speakers include Mary Barkworth, Christopher Cokinos and Victoria Grieve. Barkworth, associate professor of biology and director of the Intermountain Herbarium, will discuss her book “Grasses of the Intermountain Region,” a heavily illustrated manual reflecting the current taxonomic thought on a variety of grasses. Several original line drawings from the volume will be on display. Cokinos is an associate professor of English at USU and the editor and founder of the journal “Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing.” He will discuss “The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars.” His book weaves together memoir, natural history and the stories of scientists whose passion was the study of meteorites. Grieve, assistant professor of history and author of “The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture,” will describe her work which illuminates the role of the visual arts during the New Deal. Reproductions of WPA — Work Project Administration — exhibition posters will also be on display. For information about the exhibition, contact Duncan, (435) 797-8148, [email protected]