So was John Nash, but at heart really a mathematician. This is a great read:
https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mind-Sylvia-Nasar/dp/1451628420
A Beautiful Mind is a biography of John Nash, starting with him as a college student and continuing throughout his life as an academic. The movie's alright but the book is very good.
Also check out An Unquiet Mind, and autobiography from a psychologist who recounts her first episode of bipolar disorder during college.
Also, the protag in Frankenstein is a college student. Not contemporary, but I would definitely call it modern and very identifiable. Despite the venerability it's also quite an easy read.