Chapter 4 - Jacobs University

Acknowledgements
The accomplishment of this work would not have been possible without the help of various
people. The work in my doctoral thesis has been carried out under the guidance and supervision
of Professor Ulrich Kortz at Jacobs University. I consider myself to be endowed with immense
luck in working under his supervision. I extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to Professor
Ulrich Kortz for his inspiring motivation, valuable suggestions, discussion and constant
encouragement throughout my graduate studies and also for giving me a free hand at doing my
work. In addition, his amicable nature and easygoing attitude made my stay pleasant here. I am
also indebted to him for providing many opportunities to present my work in the scientific
community.
I would like to thank Dr. Michael H. Dickman, who instructed me in X-ray crystallography,
starting from the basics; how to mount a crystal to solving the crystal structure. This thesis would
not have been possible without his cooperation and help that goes far beyond just mounting,
measuring and 'mapping' of the molecular structures described in this thesis. I gratefully
acknowledge his cooperation. It’s been a pleasure to work with him.
I thank my mentor Professor Ulrich Kortz again who also collected the crystal structure of some
polyanions described here during his visit to Hamburg University.
I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to Professor Bernt Krebs (University of Münster)
and Professor Horst Elias (TH Darmstadt) being part of my thesis and defense committee.
I would like to thank Professor M. T. Pope, (Georgetown University, U.S.A.) for his suggestions
during his visits to Jacobs University.
I would like to thank our collaborators Professor Naresh S. Dalal and his coworkers Ms. Saritha
Nellutla, Narpinder Kaur and Johan von Tol for magnetic measurements.
4