Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Prof. Lorenzo Alvisi, for his constant mentoring and support. I am fortunate to have been able to work with him. I also want to thank Prof. Mike Dahlin for his feedback on the thesis and help with several papers and Prof. Peter Stone for insightful discussions and help with thesis writing. Thanks also to the other committee members, Prof. Greg Paxton, Prof. Fred Schneider, and Prof. Harrick Vin, for their careful reading of my draft. I also really appreciate the effort that the faculty at UT makes to be available to their students. These efforts are very much appreciated; in particular I would would like to thank Prof. Don Batory and Prof. J Moore. I owe a great deal to all of the LASR group and the 3rd floor lunch group for their support and many conversations, insightful or relaxing as needed. I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with. In particular I would like to thank Allen, Amit, Arun, Ed, Jian, and Roberto—it was great working with you. Many thanks to Maria and Ted as well as Stefano and Chiara for their generous help in times of need. An especially heartfelt thanks to Eunjin for her support, encouragement and understanding through long years of graduate school. iv Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their support, love, and encouragement starting long before graduate school