PDF - Universiteit Twente

Preface
This dissertation is the result of four years of mathematical research I carried
out at the department of Applied Mathematics of the University of
Twente between 2007 and 2011. Parts of this research have been published
in scientific journals. Financial support by the Netherlands Organisation
for Scientific Research (NWO) is greatly acknowledged. This dissertation
would not have existed without the help of several people, some of whom I
would like to mention below.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my
supervisor Prof. Hans Zwart for giving me the opportunity to work on this
project. Hans, thank you for always finding time for me, for the countless
inspiring discussions, for sharing your passion for mathematics, and for
being the best supervisor a Ph.D. student can hope for.
Many thanks goes to Prof. Arun Bagchi and Prof. Anton Stoorvogel, who
have been involved in this project as promotors, for valuable guidance and
support. Their deep knowledge and experience have been of great value to
me.
I would like to thank the other members of my graduation committee, Prof.
Ruth Curtain, Prof. Birgit Jacob, Prof. Jaap van der Vegt, and Prof. Siep
Weiland, for agreeing to serve on the committee and for reading the final
draft of my dissertation. In particular, I would like to mention Prof. Ruth
Curtain for pointing out some mistakes and for making several valuable
suggestions.
I would also like to thank Gerard Helminck for bringing Hans’ project to
my attention. For being a great officemate and for raising my interest
in German football, I would like to thank Ove Göttsche. I very much
enjoyed the company of the members of the department, in particular all
my colleagues on the second floor.
Finally, without the continuous support and interest of all my friends and
family the completion of this dissertation would not have been possible. In
particular I would like to thank Pim for following my research from the other
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