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% the acknowledgments section

I am thankful for the many people who have helped me with science and
with life throughout grad school. Without them I would have
accomplished much less, and been much less happy doing it. I will not
take the space here to properly thank everyone, but know that if you
helped with science or were a good friend, I appreciate it.

I should obviously start with my advisor Vinny Manoharan. While we
didn't always communicate well, you taught me to be a much better
communicator. You also helped me grow from an enthusiastic young
physics graduate into a proper scientist. You gave me the space to
learn how to work independently, but were always available when I
needed advice (even if I didn't remember to ask for it as often as
I should have). You helped me to learn to think, speak, and write more
precisely. Thank you for introducing me to distributed version
control, unit testing, and the python scientific stack, and giving me
the space to grow as a programmer. Your good taste in software design
was as valuable in its own way as your expertise in physics. Lastly,
thank you for fostering such an amazing social environment in the
group and for your excellent taste in people as students and
postdocs. I ended up liking all of the people I worked with in lab and
becoming close friends with many of them.

Next I should thank my collaborators and friends Rebecca Perry, Anna
Wang, Jerome Fung, and Viva Horowitz. I literally cannot imagine what
grad school would have been like without you. It is obvious from our
shared publications how much we worked together, but it is not obvious
how much I enjoyed working with all of you. Becca: your enthusiasm,
curiosity and wonder never ceased to amaze me. My biggest regret when
we switched to hot-desking was that I was no longer sitting next to
you to have you excitedly show me the latest cool thing you had found
or done. You were already an excellent scientist, but it was just fun
watching how fast you picked up programming and became a proper
hacker. I glad to have been able to help you along that road, though I
am sure you would have gotten there without me. Anna: Thank you for
finding some useful stuff to do with my DDA work even though it didn't
pan out for biological work like I was hoping. Your perspective on
life was sometimes foreign to me (and no I don't mean the Australian
part), but I am a better person for letting some of it rub off on
me. Jerome: Thank you for introducing me to the nuts and bolts of
holography and scattering. I could never keep up with you on
scattering theory, but I am glad I finally convinced you of the value
of functions. Viva, your enthusiasm and curiosity was inspiring, even
a little overwhelming sometimes. I wish more of your care and detail
mindedness had rubbed off on me. You got to see too much of me at my
worst but somehow still hold me in excessively high regard. I don't
deserve you.

If I tried to properly thank all of the wonderful people I worked with
in the Manoharan lab I would never finish these acknowledgments, but
here is the attempt I have the energy left for after way too much
writing. Thank you Dave and Ryan for getting me started with
microscopy and holography. Thank you Jesse for all the brainstorming
and ideas we shared, I am a smarter person when talking to you, and
you help me recognize strengths I didn't realize I had. Sofia, your
enthusiasm and infectious curiosity were a ray of sunshine from the
right end of the office. Nick, thanks for all the fun you brought to
lab, and for making sure I knew I was appreciated. Aaron and Solomon,
I am glad to see holography will carry on in your capable
hands. Emily, Ellen, Nabila, Toly, Andrew, Victoria, Annie, Reese,
Jin-Gyu, Ben, Kosta, Guangnan, I never worked closely with you nor got
to know you as well as I would have preferred but you made lab a
better place and I am glad our to have spend the time I did with you.

My route through grad school was not without its bumps. I am eternally
grateful to all of my friends and family who helped keep me sane for a
most of the long slog and then helped me piece myself back together
when I fell apart in spite of their best efforts. I would like to call
out my friends Cheryl Agaskar-Sorace, Ameya Agaskar, Lusann Yang, Dale
Winter, and Emily Russel, and Alan Morse. You all had your own
tribulations through grad school, know that you were a big part of me
making it through mine.

I should also thank my counselors Carmen Cruz and David Abramson. When
I got too far down for even the best of friends and family to help,
you somehow patched me back together and got me going again. I would
not have finished this degree without your help.

Jeff and Sally, thank you for being such amazing siblings. Jeff: I
probably don't need to tell you this, but you in many ways edge out my
parents as the oldest and best influence on how I think, especially
about numbers, logic, and solving problems. On top of that, no one
could ask for a more fun brother to hang out with. Sally: we were both
too busy to talk as often as we should have, but your levelheaded
sensibility combined with deep resilience was a source of strength for
me. Ellen and Ben, thank you for being such great partners to my
siblings and good friends to me.

Lastly, I thank my parents. Words can't do the gratitude I owe you
justice, but I know you understand anyway. In addition to being the
reason I am in the world at all, you are also the reason I am a
scientist and a big part of the reason I am any good at it. I had the
fortune of having two parents I could talk to about my research, and
who could actually give me useful advice on it. It also ended up being
far more important than I would have preferred that you were still
willing to take care of me when I needed it even as an adult. Thank
you Mom and Dad getting me here, for sharing in the highs, and for helping
me through the lows, and for everything.
