Mould growth on building materials - Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
More than seven ago years ago I was introduced to the fascinating world of fungi and mycotoxins
by Ole Filtenborg and Thomas O. Larsen. The opportunity to work on my own with an
array of sophisticated equipment, made me stay in the Mycology Group, and led to my M.Sc.
project where Suzanne Gravesen and Thomas convinced me to work with satratoxins in
buildings. Successfully ending this work, it resulted in my Ph.D. project financed by the Danish
Building Research Institute where Erik Christophersen organised the funds for the project
as well as the many travels.
However, it has also been frustrating to work in a field where you are unable to help people,
often socially disadvantaged, who are forced to move from their mouldy homes due to massive
symptoms, often victims of the ignorance of the authorities.
Working in such a multidisciplinary area requires help from a lot of people, and at the Danish
Building Research Institute I would like to thank the librarians, especially Lillian Nielsen who
have been a tremendous help in ordering scientific papers. Gunnar Holm has been a great
help in constructing experimental set-ups, Lotte P. Uttrup and Per Hansen have prepared
material samples, Jan Carl Westphall helped with various photographic problems, Yelva
Jensen has been a good secretary, and Solveig Nissen with the language revision of some
of the papers as well as this thesis. Peter A. Nielsen is acknowledged for the fruitful discussions
on health and building related issues.
Jørgen Ø. Madsen, Department of Organic Chemistry, in preparing the 4-D2-ergosterol was a
great help in making the ergosterol analytical method work.
The private consultants Mikael Ø. Hansen and Peter Thompson have kindly supplied me with
"real" mouldy materials, interesting field observations, and taken their time to show me the
real mouldy world outside the laboratories.
I would like to thank Dr. Aino Nevalainen, Dr. Maija-Riitta Hirvonen, and their helpful Ph.D.
students for letting me work in their laboratories at the National Public Health Institute,
Kuopio, Finland.
Working at TNO Bouw, The Netherlands, with Dr. Olaf Adan and Gerben van der Wel helped
me understand the importance of instationary environmental conditions for mould <strong>growth</strong>.
Having Professor Bruce B. Jarvis in our group for a year raised the level of my work on
Stachybotrys and natural products significantly and introduced me to a number of other research
groups.
The help of colleagues in the Mycology group, in particular Elisabeth Krøger, Kir Lyhne,
Flemming Lund, Thomas O. Larsen, Jørn Smedsgaard, Jens C. Frisvad and Birgitte Andersen
has been encouraging. Ulf Thrane has been the perfect Ph.D. supervisor who always
had time - if needed, and on the other hand never intervened much in my work.
Thanks to Suzanne Gravesen who believed so much in my work and have taught me so
much about so many different things and introduced me to so many people as well as helping
with the language revision of this report.
The support and understanding of my beloved wife Hanne - especially during my stays in
Finland, Holland and various conference as well as the acceptance of the large piles of papers,
CD, books etc. during my project cannot be overestimated.
Lyngby, June 2001
Kristian Fog Nielsen
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