Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank my adviser Dr. Jason Hafher for guiding me through the long
and difficult process that is the Ph.D. I am eternally grateful for his patient mentoring.
Thanks also go out to my committee members Dr. Huey Huang and Dr. Yousif Shamoo
for giving of their time. I would also especially like to thank Dr. Clayton Simien for the
support he provided at various times. I would also like to especially thank my lab-mate
Dr. Yi Yang and Kathryn Mayer for their scientific input and well as for being such a joy
to work with. Also, thanks go out to my colleagues Dr. Colleen Nehl and Dr. Hongwei
Liao and Sean Lee who were helpful to me in many different ways during my graduate
career. I also thank my friends from Rice, Luke Probst, Chris Ralston, Dr. Sarah Nagel,
Natali Martinez, Dr. Christine Peebles, Dr. Vinay Ribeiro, Dr. Paul Fortunato, Mike
Karim and all the others from RGCF who were a great support to me. Thanks also to the
people from WUBC, Roger Patterson, Erik Lawrence, Dave Allee, Jim and Shireen Tour
and many others who made me feel welcome. I am eternally grateful to Emilia for her
love and support as well as her scientific input. Finally, I would like to thank my parents
and my sisters for teaching me right from wrong and for giving me the opportunity to
follow my dreams and for teaching me right from wrong. I dedicate this to the memory of
my father who gave so much of himself so that we, his children could prosper.
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