ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Kevin A. Schug who has encouraged me to keep my head up and helped me overcome many difficulties for the last 4 years of my study, as he said “look at them as hurdles that you need to jump”. I enjoyed every conversation that we have had; regardless of whether they were long or short, they inspired me to have more ideas and solutions for my research. I cannot forget the separations course, because it is one of the best courses I have ever taken. I would like to thank Dr. Daniel W. Armstrong for being my committee member and helping me to understand more about this field of science. The class was fun and informative; I still use the class notes quite regularly. I am grateful to Dr. Zoltan A. Schelly for being my committee member and instructor of very a fun P.Chem class. I still remember, in a very special way, how he explained “heat transfer”. Although I have to confess that I did not do very well with statistic math in the class, it was very nice experience to attend those “probability ” lectures. I would like to give many thanks to Dr. Sandy Dasgupta. He is probably the one who has observed the most of my personal growth in the field of chemistry. In one of my very first classe