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The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/41476 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation
Author: Festi, Dino
Title: Topics in the arithmetic of del Pezzo and K3 surfaces Issue Date: 2016-07-05
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ronald van Luijk. During the last five years he has guided me, first as Master and later as PhD supervisor, with impressive patience, making me grow from both a mathematical and a human point of view.
Alongside, I would like to thank my second supervisor, Bert van Geemen, for immediately introducing me to the world of the research, and being always available for all my questions.
Dank aan mijn promotor, Peter Stevenhagen. Vijf jaar geleden kwam ik naar Leiden toe omdat ik hem had ontmoet.
I would like to thank the reading committee of my thesis, for the at- tention they paid to my work and for all the useful comments they gave me; I would also like to thank the opposition committee, for honouring me by their presence at my PhD defence.
This thesis is also the fruit of joint work with other people. I would like to thank Alice Garbagnati, Florian Bouyer, Edgar Costa, Christo- pher Nicholls, and Mckenzie West for working with me.
During my research, many people have helped me, proposing new problems, answering my questions or just spending time talking to me.
For this reason I would like to thank Martin Bright, Maarten Derickx, Igor Dolgachev, Bas Edixhoven, Noam Elkies, Alice Garbagnati, Eric Larson, David Holmes, Hendrik Lenstra, Ariyan Javanpeykar, Michiel Kosters, Maxim Mornev, Rachel Newton, Carlo Pagano, Efthymios So- fos, Jaap Top, Abraham Varghese, Anthony V´arilly-Alvarado, and Is- abel Vogt.
Thanks to Patrizia Longobardi, Giovanni Vincenzi, and Maria Tran- sirico for being my first guides in the academic world.
All this work would not have been possible without the financial 125
support of the ALGANT consortium and the Matematisch Instituut in Leiden. I would also thank these two institutions and their staff for the ideal environment they created in Leiden: working here has always been a pleasure. Thanks to Universit`a degli Studi di Milano and its staff as well, for hosting and welcoming me in Milan.
If I never felt tired of coming to the department, both in Leiden and Milan, it was because I could always find a friendly face there. I can’t name all the people I would like to, but I must thank Michiel, Athana- sios, Rosa, Kathelijne, Rachel, Mima, Djordjo, Eva, Elisa, Gino, Duˇsan, Francesca, Stefan, and Anja in Leiden; Matteo, Guglielmo, Tommy, Il Pit and Simona in Milan. A special mention goes to Weidong, for always counselling me right.
Thanks to my historic and loyal flatmate, Jacopo, for not killing me in all these years living together.
Grazie, Marta.
If Leiden has become my second home, it is because in Leiden I have met a second family: Pınar, Abtien, Iuliana, Martin, Valerio, Maarten, see you in via Gluck.
Nonostante tutti questi anni di lontananza, non avete mai mancato di essermi vicini: Stefano, Carmine, Sasha, Mario, Gabriele, Alfredo, Ambra, Luca, Giovanni, Camillo, Anna Carla, grazie di cuore.
Infine, vorrei ringraziare la mia famiglia, per avermi tenuto per mano quando ho avuto paura, per avermi sostenuto quando sono stato stanco, e per avermi lasciato libero di andare ogni qual volta ho voluto.
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