What's made your day that little bit better?

Elin wrote
Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank my two promotors, Prof. Dr. Patric Jacobs and Prof. Dr. Frank Mostaert. Without them, I would never have embarked on this journey. And their continuous support and belief in me have kept me going towards this end goal: a thesis and a doctors’ degree.

I also would like to thank the members of my examination committee, who right at the end of the process, were still able to contribute greatly by interesting and thought-provoking comments. Thanks to you, this thesis is a better end product.

Furthermore, I have encountered people from all over the world, whom have selflessly accepted a sort of mentorship over me and whom have shared their insights and wisdom in various fields of science, but also their insights into life as a scientist and life in general.

Art Horowitz (and his wife Carolyn) have welcomed me in their home and gave me more than I could ever hope for and more than I can ever give back. I have decided to pay it forward and now spread the good cheer of Tom Lehrer to whomever wants to hear it.

Han Golterman (and his wife Nell) were kind enough to stop by regularly on their frequent trips between Holland and France. Every encounter taught me new things about iron chemistry and made me grow as a scientist. Now that you have settled in Holland indefinitely, I’ll have to come visit you guys, instead of the other way around.

And finally Adrian Collins, whose enthusiasm about sediment fingerprinting is the best antidote against depression when yet another modelling result didn’t turn out the expected results. It was a pleasure to see scientific hunger in action and to be ignited by it.

Additionally, I want to thank, I need to thank, ing. Jan De Schutter, without whom about 1/3 of this thesis would not have seen the light. MARS exists because of you. Your creative and continuously searching scientific mind is a treasure which is already being missed at FHR.

As institutes I would like to thank the Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, the Department of Environment, Nature and Energy (Afdeling Land en Bodembescherming, Ondergrond, Natuurlijke Rijkdommen: Dienst Land en Bodembescherming) and Flanders Hydraulics Research for the use of their data.

I also have many people to thank in the academic and professional field, for helping me in a very practical way, by allowing me (and the students I supervised) to access their laboratories and play around with their equipment and helping me with some of my analyses. These people include Prof. Dr. Margaret Chen (VUB) for sharing her knowledge on flocs and for assisting in a sampling campaign, using her floc sampler; Prof. Dr. Peter Van de haute en Dr. Johan De Grave for making their microscopes available and Guido Uytersprot from the Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology of Ghent University for his assistance in the iron content analyses. Furthermore, I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Louwye for providing me with sediment of the Diest Formation and ir. Ward De Cooman from the VMM, for the sampling campaigns in the Demer basin. Prof. Dr. Rene Van Grieken (Department of Chemistry, UA) I would like to thank for the XRF-analyses executed at his MiTAC research group. Additionally, I would like to thank Kurt Blom for keeping my computer virus-free and working.

I also want to thank the master and bachelor scription students whom I supervised. I invested a lot of energy in them, but they gave me so much more in return: Tom, Jozefien, Helena, Steven, Rindert, Bram, William and last but not least Patty, you were a delight to work with.

I also need to thank all the people who work at Flanders Hydraulics Research. They are at the moment my colleagues, but they have helped me all along the way: from the first day I started my master thesis until the day I finished the PhD, and they continue to be there for me. Some of these colleagues deserve a shout-out, so here it goes (in no particular order): Eric (for infecting me with love for the Scheldt, this will never go away); Steven (for his relentless search for the truth - or at least the journal articles in which this appears); Lia, Ellen, Rita, Mireille and the rest of the sedimentological lab team (for their excellent work and their good spirits, it was a joy to work alongside you); Hans, Jef, Ivo, Jean-Paul, Paul, Peter, Erwin, Guy and Leonid (for your devoted work on and around the field); Wouter, Erika and Stef (for your very much appreciated help with GIS-maps); Ricardo, Hans, Sam and Koen (for being my IT-life-lines, when a computer decided to crash once more, or a macro decided to do the complete opposite of what it was programmed to do); Stijn, Patrik and Joris (because it’s good to have fellow PhD-writers who also work full time around), Fernando, Maarten, Leen, Peter, Niels, Yaïr, Gudrun, Ria, Thomas, Karen, Koen, Bram, Annelies and Ruben (a.k.a the rest of HIC in the present or the past) for being part of a great team, where I can feel at home. Also part of the team are the wonderful people of MOD. We couldn’t do what we were doing without your support.

There are some people from FHR, whom I have not mentioned above, because they are more than colleagues. They were the shoulder I could cry on when things were just too hard to carry on my own and they were there to share a laughter. Lieve and Marc: I love you guys.

A special mention also goes to ir. Katrien Van Eerdenbrugh, who was, when she was still working at FHR, my supervisor. She gave me the room to learn one of the most important lessons in life: it is ok to fail. You learn from it and you get better at whatever it is you’re doing. Look where I ended up…

And when I’m on the topic of special mentions, one person is absolutely deserved of a special mention: dr. Katleen Van Meel. We met through this PhD-work, we continued to work together at FHR, but what binds us is much more than chemistry, science or work. Because it takes a lion, to recognize one…

When it comes to the finalized product, my thanks goes out to Viki, David and Yvan. For fighting MS Word with me, and being just as perfectionistic as me. Also a big thank you to my TDT (typo detection team, consisting of Cristina, Marc, Rogier, Martijn, Laura, Leandro, Joris, Erik, Luc, Kevin and mental support from Menno). This group of friends (consisting of tango friends, soundtrack nuts, figure skaters and one statistical wonder, helped me out so much, finding typos where I could only see words and figures).

This PhD is much more than just 350+ pages. It represents a period of my life, a period in which I grew as a person. And therefore I cannot say that I could have finished this work, had it not been for this personal growth, which was enabled by so many people who were or still are part of my life.

My first big thank you goes to Ingridje, the best coach and friend anybody could want; Luis, who taught me not to judge myself, but to love myself instead; Els and Anneke, who both in their own way, have helped to lighten the load I was carrying, which made the trip that much easier.

But there are also so many people in my social network, who kept me sane, when I was going loopy, they kept me grounded, when I was ready to fly off, they helped me to be me. These people include my friends from my figure skating life, the tango scene and my fellow soundtrack geeks. A big shout-out goes to Bear McCreary, whose music became the soundtrack to my PhD, and whose encouragements on facebook brought a smile on my face.

And that brings me to facebook… Well, I’m not going to thank Mark Zuckerberg for creating it, but I am going to thank all my friends on there, whom have followed all of my PhD-related posts (and sometimes whining) and who found the time to keep posting sweet little nothings, and great humoristic quotes to keep my spirits up. You were essential to my good mood. Thank you guys so much.

We are nearing the end of this list, and so all who remain, are my nearest and dearest…
Alexander, Tine, Ywan and Marcel, you are all people who share a part of my soul and whom I love dearly. Distance doesn’t mean anything when hearts are connected. You have always been there for me. Thank you so much.

My godfather and aunty, who have always believed in me, through thick and thin. I can only hope they realize how important they are to me.
My godmother and uncle, who have always been there for me, and are the best supporters a niece can ask for.

My cousin Rutger, whose cookery is legendary. He is also the first man to ever decorate my bathroom with candles and a computer playing meditation music, in an attempt to get me to relax and get my mind off this PhD. (Note to readers with a dirty mind: no he wasn’t in the bathroom at the time I was taking the bath. He’s my cousin…). In any case, Rutger, you rock!

My sister Kirstin and her husband Christophe, who have fed me when I was too tired to feed myself after another long day (and/or night) of PhD-work and who have pried me away from my books to take a walk along the Durme every now and again. Sis, you were always there to share anything that needed sharing, or draw a Tarot card to make sense of it all. You are my best friend, my closest family. De zusjes, die krijgt niemand uit elkaar…

And finally mom and dad. There is nothing left to say except: lover you ;-).

And to those I might forgot to mention by name, my gratitude is no less.

plindboe wrote
Speaking of weddings I was the best man at my brother's wedding recently. Easiest job I've ever had.

Peter

Timmer wrote
Been at Glastonbury Festival most of the day, setting tent up etc. I go back on Tuesday afternoon for the remainder....can't wait!

Timmer wrote


I'll be working there and having 'funsies' , I'm fortunate that I'm part of a team that gets paid wages, a lot of employees just work to get a ticket.

We always go down a few days before to set up our tents ( we have private camping in a secure field, lots of expensive equipment around etc, there's a few groups who work weeks before us, riggers, scaffolders, sound engineers etc )

Martijn wrote
So if we were to see you in action, we'd get to see the bottom of the sea?

Seriously though: congratulations! Not easy landing a job these days, and you did it.
How long is it for?