University of Groningen
Bacterial interactions with nanostructured surfaces
Hizal, Ferdi
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below.
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Publication date: 2017
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
Hizal, F. (2017). Bacterial interactions with nanostructured surfaces. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
Copyright
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).
Take-down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
118
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T
My dissertation would not be possible without the excellent guidance and support from all my supervisors. Since the first day I got involved in the dual-PhD program between Stevens and UMCG, I owe my sincere gratitude to all of them.
First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor Henk J. Busscher. It has been an honor to be his Ph.D. student. I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, and effort to make my Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating. The joy and enthusiasm he had for research was contagious and motivational for me, even during tough times in the PhD pursuit. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my PhD study.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Henny C. van der Mei for the continuous support of my PhD study and related research, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. She has taught me, consciously and unconsciously, how good experimental microbiology is done. I would also like to say my thanks to my very first supervisor, Chang-Hwan Choi, for constant support during the whole project, for being available to discuss new ideas and troubleshooting and for demonstrating great scientific reasoning. I am grateful that he gave me so much freedom and opportunity to try new things. A very special gratitude goes out to Frank Fisher, the head of the Mechanical Engineering department at Stevens, for always being there in uncomfortable situations and giving me a lift.
Besides my advisors, I would like to thank the rest of the BME department at UMCG for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard questions which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. I thank my fellow labmates in Hoboken for the stimulating discussions, for the sleepless nights we were working together before deadlines, and for all the fun we have had in the last four years.
My sincere thanks also goes to Wya, Ina and Willy whom I owe a lot for their help during my busy travels between the two countries for helping me settling down every time. I would never forget the first invitation to the coffee break on my first day in the department.
Coming from a mechanical engineering background, it is not the easiest job to handle a pipette and pretend as an experienced one. However, thankfully, Minie was there to save me with a big smile and attitude. I am also thankful for the many technicians with whom I worked during my PhD and who provided an excellent and indispensable support during the execution of my experiments, but special thanks to Betsy and Gesinda for their help for bacteria preparation and flow chamber experiments.
Colleagues/friends at BME: Akshay, Brandon, Colin, Derly, Helen, Jan, Joana, Niar, Philipp, Song, Stefan, Vera, Yiwen and Yuri, your presence made my days at BME much more enjoyable. Thanks for all the fun moments we shared during coffee/tea breaks and Kolff days.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and to my brother, Fermet and sisters, Papatya and Kelebek, for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis and my life in general. A very special thanks to the love of my life, my wife, for her kindness in every step we take together in life.
P.S. to my future kids: You would have come a lot earlier if it wasn’t for this thesis. Sorry guys!
