Cover Page
The handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1887/137985
holds various files of this Leiden University
dissertation.
Author:
Berghout, S.
Acknowledgements
The projects in this thesis were made possible with the support of many wonderful people that I would like to thank in this section.
First, I would like to thank the individual with the largest contribution to my PhD: my supervisor Prof. Dr. Evgeny Verbitskiy. The effort you put into our joint projects was impressive and the contribution to the mathematical ideas invalu-able.
Second I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Roberto Fernandez, who, as one of my master thesis supervisors recommended this position. And who, as co-author, by his expertise, kindness and passion for the topic, was a source of many inspiring conversations.
The probability group in Leiden was an important context for learning more about mathematics, especially on topics outside of what is covered in this thesis. My thanks go to my second promotor Prof. Dr. Frank den Hollander for bringing this group together and also for his feedback on my thesis and accompanying propositions.
I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Aernout van Enter for providing extensive feedback on my manuscript.
Many at the Mathematical Institute contributed indirectly. From among the staff I would like to thank Charlene Kalle for many supportive discussions. From among the PhD students, there are too many to name, since so many of you have been such amazing friends.
Finally I would like to thank the people closest to me. My parents, Johan en Yvonne, for the loving and supportive upbringing, and my siblings Leonie en Mariska for always believing in me. And finally, Liza, who is always there for me and makes my life so much brighter.
Curriculum vitae
Steven Berghout was born in Krimpen aan den IJssel on Octber 18, 1987. He attended high school in Rotterdam, starting in 2000, and obtained his diploma in 2005. That same year he started with the Bachelor programmes Physics and Astronomy and Mathematics at Utrecht University. He finished this programme with a bachelor thesis on the topic of Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
Subsequently, he followed and completed the master programmes in Theoreti-cal Physics and MathemetiTheoreti-cal Sciences at Utrecht University. These programmes were completed with a master thesis titled "The Einstein-Smoluchowski Equation in the One Dimensional Exclusion Process" in 2014. In the mean time, from 2007 onwards, he acted as a teaching assistant in several courses in both the Physics and the Mathematics departments.
After a brief intermezzo working in IT, he started his PhD at Leiden University with Prof. Dr. Evgeny Verbitskiy as his daily supervisor and Prof. Dr. Frank den Hollander as his second promotor. Currently he works as a design engineer in the metrology department of ASML.
