Etter å ha snakket så mye om avstand til månen, og love you to the moon and back, fikk jeg spørsmål om jeg rett og slett kunne poste disse takkekapitlene våre - eller Acknowledgements, som det kalles. En doktoravhandling er jo et offentlig dokument, så her er det veldig dumt å skrive noe man syns er for privat til at andre skal lese det, så jeg deler selvsagt gjerne 😀 Ikke at jeg er så fryktelig redd for å dele tanker av det mer personlige slaget sånn eller, heller, da... 😉
acknowledgements - Sunniva
First, I must say that I have been extremely lucky to have two awesome supervisors: Sunniva Siem and Jon Wilson - a million thanks to both of you! This PhD project would never have happened if it weren’t for you. A special thanks to Sunniva: For allowing me to be me. When I said, well I think I want to make a girly blog about nuclear physics and research and stuff, and spend half of my time on blogging and being on the radio and TV and travelling all around Norway to tell young people why they should think about pursuing a career in science, and that nuclear physics is awesome, you have done nothing but show support. This has really meant the world to me!
Secondly, thank you to my family for all love and support. Especially, for my Grandfather and Grandmother for taking me to the library so often when I was a little girl; where I first found a book about the horrible events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which both scared me and interested me at the same time. Ever since I have been extremely fascinated about the atomic nucleus and the force that holds it all together.
I’m very grateful to my sister, Carina, who is always helpful with Alexandra. When I was a single mother, this was what enabled me to travel around, taking part in experiments or going to conferences or whatever; it would have been very hard to do this without your help.
Thanks to all the great people in the Nuclear Physics group at UiO! Gry, Ann-Cecilie, Trine, Therese – thank you for coffee breaks, proof reading, help with data analysis, keeping up the spirit, etc. Also, thanks to Fabio for lively and sometimes never ending discussions…
Vibeke, you turned out to be the perfect partner the last couple of weeks that also included Christmas, what a happy coincidence you had your electromagnetism exam at about the exact same time I was finishing this thesis 🙂 Lise, three hearts to you for your long and faithful service as study mate; from we started our bachelors’ degrees in physics and meteorology, to our masters’ degrees, and then finally to your PhD and now (hopefully) mine <3 <3 <3
Anders: When I wanted to give up, you made sure I didn’t (and I wanted to give up quite a lot…). When I needed to work long hours you smiled and said of course I’ll get Alexandra from school! We’ll have fun, and you just work for as long as you need. When I didn’t know how to solve my stupid computational problems, you spent the time needed to learn enough about my field of physics, to be able to solve it with me. Thank you also for making me coffee in bed EVERY MORNING. Finally, I’m grateful for Alexandra’s smiles and cheers, and acceptance for her mother having no time for her for many weeks.
I love you both to the moon and back!
acknowledgements - Anders
The past four years have been truly amazing, and I have zero regrets on pursuing a PhD. The work in this thesis was carried out at Physics of Geological Processes (PGP) at the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo from 2014 through 2018. Being around people who are so passionate about physics is incredible.
Thanks to Statoil who funded this work through the Tight Rocks project.
My first encounter with someone passionate about physics was in high school when I had the pleasure of having Knut Løvseth as teacher in both mathematics and physics. He clearly loves physics and teaching, and was an excellent teacher.
I remember when I by accident evaluated \(\ln(-1)\), and \(i\pi\) showed up on my calculator with no warning at all. I was stunned, because in my mind, there was no reason why the numbers \(\pi\) and\(e\) should be related. I asked him about it, and he brought an old book for the next class. He then showed me complex numbers and how these are related to $\pi$ through the unit circle. He has been a true inspiration to me throughout my many years as a teaching assistant, supervisor and researcher. Thank you Knut, this thesis would not have happened without you.
My career path actually started many years before high school. In 1998, at the age of 11, I won a Packard Bell computer in Donald Duck & Co. Having my own computer from early on has been tremendously useful. The year after, my dad showed me how to write Visual Basic scripts in Excel and I have loved programming since. I'm grateful to you, dad, that you introduced me to what now is my favorite thing to do.
And to my mom and my stepdad, who always supported me in my choices: thank you so much for always being there for me 🙂 You truly understood my passion for computers, and helped me whenever I needed help, although you were a bit worried that I spent too much time in front of the computer. You weren't wrong, but it turned out ok. I'm sorry about that one time when we (by we, I mean my parents) got a 10000 NOK phone bill because I had played Planetarion online during night time:D
My intense interest for computers and games was shared with my two best friends from childhood Pål Einar Storsveen and Ole-Kristian Øien. We have been to so many LAN's and played endless amounts of computer games. Thank you guys, it has been fantastic.
Later, during my bachelor, I met Andreas Nakkerud. Wow, what a journey it has been. We have played a ridiculous amount of computer games over the years - especially Minecraft, OpenTTD and Counter-Strike. But there is so much more than that. We've had so many interesting, deep discussions about physics and taught several courses together. And let's not forget about all the hammock trips to the woods and cabins.
I shared an apartment with Andreas, Richard Rørmark, Sindre Aarsaether, Bedeho Mender and Andreas Våvang Solbrå. We all shared the joy (and the decent amount of pain) of programming, and those years were truly amazing. In fact, Sindre, Andreas and I started a company named TapCat in 2011 to develop apps for the iPhone. That we failed is an understatement, but I have zero regrets. I learned so much, and had a great time living the life as a startup without money in Silicon Valley for 2 months. Sindre and Andreas: it was great and I love that we did this together.
After the failed startup, I went back to university to start a masters at computational physics with Anders Malthe-Sørenssen as supervisor. That was one of the best choices I have ever made in my life. He has been a fantastic supervisor who has believed in me and given me the freedom to follow my true passion. Anders has also been my main supervisor on my PhD, together with Dag Kristian Dysthe.
Thank you so much for all help and inspiring discussions!
Anders introduced me to the group Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations (CACS) group at University of Southern California (USC) when I was doing my masters. At USC, I met Rajiv Kalia, Priya Vashishta and Aiichiro Nakano, whom I have had the pleasure of working with on multiple research projects over the past two years. Spending three months there in 2017 has really shaped me as a researcher, and I have a much deeper insight in statistical mechanics thanks to numerous discussions and hard questions.
During my master's degree, I also met and worked with Svenn-Arne Dragly, whom I've continued working with throughout my PhD. We both share a deep interest for programming and visualizations. We love discussing how programming can be done great (I have a long way to go). I really hope to be able to continue working with you in the future.
I share an office with Kjetil Thøgersen and Henrik Sveinsson. Thank you so much for these years. Numerous hours of rubber ducking and coffee breaks have really been great. Henrik, I want to add an extra thanks to you. I will miss and remember our trips to Los Angeles for the rest of my life. And you know, everything else 🙂
Teaching has been one of my greatest pleasures during my time at the university.
I want to thank all the student's I have been so lucky to meet and talk to. Fysikkforeningen and Lillefy, you have a big place in my heart 🙂
Lastly, to my love Sunniva: the passion we share for physics, education and technology is unbelievable, and makes look forward to tomorrow every single day.
Our mornings with coffee (with complete silence the first 10 minutes, of course) are precious. I can't wait to share the rest of my life with you and Alexandra <3
Alexandra, you have no idea how awesome you are. We have so much fun and you spread joy and happiness each day, and we will soon make an app called Dumskallepaprika together. Thanks for being you!
Sunniva and Alexandra: I love you both to the moon and back (which is more than you when you handed in yours! The moon is today approximately 406061 km away from the earth, but when you handed in yours it was only about 365353 km away :D).
Jeg avslutter dagen med å dele noen av de fine bildene som Kai Dragland tok på gårsdagens PHD-party på NTNU - det passer jo fint når det uansett er snakk om PhD 🙂
Advarsel - selvskryt: Å høre rett ut at noen syns det du sier inspirerende, og spør deg om råd, at de vil ta en doktograd på grunn av deg, at de vil ut å dele av sin kunnskap på grunn av deg - og kanskje du har noen gode råd på veien - det varmer så mye at jeg kan ikke få sagt det skikkelig! Jeg kjenner meg varm om hjertet når jeg går igjennom gårsdagen i hodet mitt, og alle de fine menneskene jeg møtte ♥
Photo: Kai T. Dragland / NTNU