Citation for published version (APA): Dang, H. (2010). Particle induced strand breakage in plasmid DNA. Groningen: s.n.

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1 University of Groningen Particle induced strand breakage in plasmid DNA Dang, Hong IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2010 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Dang, H. (2010). Particle induced strand breakage in plasmid DNA. Groningen: s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date:

2 Acknowledgments More than four years ago, I visited Groningen for the first time. At that time, I did not know that Groningen would be the place where I would continue my study. Now that I am near the end of my PhD research, I wish to express my gratitude to all the people who have shared their time, dedication and enthusiasm with me during my stay in Groningen. First I want to thank my dear promotors, Ronnie Hoekstra and Thomas Schlathölter. I am deeply grateful to both of you as I could never have arrived at this point without your help. I have learned a lot from you about not only science but also life experience. Thomas, thanks for accepting and guiding me into the world of Biophysics. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to participate in a number of conferences, workshops, winter schools and scientific collaborations in the field, which, in my opinion, were really useful for my research project. Many thanks for your patience in carefully reading and checking my writing. My English skills were even improved from jokes you made during coffee and lunch time. Ronnie, thanks for believing in me from the very first moment and giving me a chance to work in a very nice atmosphere in the ATF group. Thank you for reading my thesis many times and correcting even the smallest mistakes. I greatly appreciate your endless patience in answering all my questions. The conversations and discussions with you were always very nice. I am very much indebted to your administrative supports, which made my stay in the group more comfortable. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Reinhard Morgenstern for his interesting discussions about my work at the beginning. I am sincerely grateful to the members of my thesis reading committee, Prof. Petra Rudolf (University of Groningen), Prof. Sytze Brandenburg (KVI Groningen) and Prof. Nigel Mason (Open University, UK), for carefully reading the 117

3 118 Acknowledgments manuscript and giving me very useful comments and suggestions. Now it is the time to thank all the friends, who have worked with me and who have made my stay in KVI more enjoyable. What is a friend? I will tell you...it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself 1. Erwin, you are my first friend in Groningen and also the first colleague that I had at KVI. Thank you for your nice cooperation in the first year of my PhD time. Thank you for concerning about both my sadness and happiness. I will never forget the times we did experiments together at night, with all the discussions about physics and social life. Ruud, thank to be my close friend. Thanks for convincing me to go to the sport as it is the way to takes all the stress away. Thank to stand all "bla bla bla" stories and bad jokes from me. Thank for continuously helping me in my work. Thanks for being there whenever I need you as a supporter. Thank you to be my parannymph. I am happy that I had the chance to work together with Marc-Jan van Goethem. I realized that my curiosity and enthusiasm about the research project were definitely enhanced after many discussions with him. I also wish to thank Marc-Jan for his help on many occasions. It is my great pleasure to work together with you, Jan. By giving me many advices and showing me new tricks, you have helped me a lot in building up the sample holder. Sometime your questions about the experiment helped me to understand my work much better. I greatly appreciate Emiel van der Graaf for checking my paper and giving me invaluable comments. I also want to thank him and Ron ten Have for their support in taking care my experiment with the AGOR setup at night. I would like to acknowledge all my friends in ATF group for sharing with me a nice working environment. I cherish the time that I worked with all of you. It always was a nice time when we had a traditional summer and winter dinners together. I just want to "freeze" all these "cozy" moments such that I can keep them in my "memory frame". Many thanks are due Sadia, Jos, Olmo, Ina, Geert and Meike for sharing time, interest, company and experience with me. Corine, thank you for becoming one of my paranymphs. All the best wishes are sent to my former colleagues: Mirko, Albert, Fresia, Dennis, Pzemek, and Gabriel. In the duration of my PhD, the KVI workshop was one of the places I like to visit. There was always a warm atmosphere with cheery people and nice music 1 Frank Crane ( ), an American Presbyterian minister, speaker, and columnist.

4 119 from the old radio. I am sincerely grateful to all the technical staffs for their support with patience and highest responsibility. I particularly acknowledge Hans, Dirk, Roelof, Sandra, Micheal, Imko, Nanko, and Andrea not only for helping me with making the sample holders and the small setup of the low energy experiments but also for lending me some specialized tools. A typical question I got from them was "When do you need it?", and I realized that the way to have the things that I ordered as quickly as possible should be given in the answer which they taught me as a trick: "yesterday". I also would like to thank the help from the KVI electronic department. Many thanks to Hans Vorenholt, Therese Poelman and Martin Stokroos for their support on solving the electronic problems of my experimental setup. During the time I worked with the Surphyn setup and glove box in the chemical room to prepare my samples, I needed the help of the vacuum department for UHV problems. I had to use many N 2 bottles for my experiment. They always helped me to connect it. Additionally, on many occasions I urgently needed a lot of silica gel, and Henk had to dry this immediately for me. Henk and Jelke, I will never forget all the times you helped me. I also want to thank Hans Fraiquin and Harry Timersma for providing me all the chemical materials and tools. I would not have my data without the help of Jan-Willem Mekkering, Mariet, and Harm. They were of great help in making sure that the R.F. generator of the AGOR ECRIS worked properly, and in fixing and preparing the source, such that it was in a perfect state for my experiment. I want to thank the IT group for all the support. Jakko, Ralph and Alfred, who tried helping me to fix all the problems I encountered, such that I could work smoothly with my computer. The personnel and financial departments were very helpful in taking care about all the chaotic documents for me. Also, Amarins Petitiaux made my life easier by being so prompt and efficient in arranging my work related traveling. Traveling is one of my favorite activities. First, I went to Caen to perform experiments. Austria was my next destination. I visited Innsbruck once, to work with the group of Paul Scheier. This was an unforgettable time. Special thanks to Paul for having the doors of his group s lab open for me. Thanks also to Filipe Ferreira da Silva, Andreas Mauracher and the rest of the group for hosting me during my visits. I worked in the group for only two weeks, but I had a valuable experience working with you, which resulted in a nice co-authored paper. It is my luck to have a chance of working with a lot of people during my PhD

5 120 Acknowledgments time. They were really sweet and kind. It reminds me about the people with whom I have cooperated at the UMCG. I would like to give my thanks to Prof. Harrie Kampinga and Dr. Rob Coppes for allowing me to use the chemical tools and the gamma source in their group. I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Serena Carra and Jeanette for their kind help with all kinds of chemical materials and equipments. I also want to mention here that I was very lucky to have a chance to have valuable discussions with Dr. Guy Garty (Columbia University, US) and Dr. Christopher Adam Hunniford (Queen s University Belfast, UK). Special thanks to the PhD and Master students who have made my stay at KVI unforgettable. Thanks to those with whom I shared my five FANTOM courses: Ayanangsha, Gouri, Bodhaditya, Ali, Hossein, Jordy, Leila, Suresh, Daniel, Daren, Ganesh, Elmaddin, Rob Kremers... Thank you for sharing the movie nights and going out for drinks with me: Sivaji, Oliver, Ronald, Qader, Sybren, Olena, Olga, Vanni, Gianluca and Renato. Thanks to Marlène for making my life outside KVI more beautiful and fun. Parties at your place with Simona, Victor, Oscar, Duurt, Wilbert and Lotje are one of my best memories in my time in Groningen. I will also not forget the nice trip with Manisha, Ola and Ruud in Barcelona. It is really one of the most incredible tours I have made. I also enjoyed the short time I worked together with two students Chris and Evelyn. I also express my sincere thanks to my former teachers, Prof. Nguyễn Châu, Prof. Nguyễn Hữu Đức, Prof. Nguyễn Hoàng Lương and Prof. Nguyễn Ngọc Long of the Vietnam National University (VNU), for their constant support and sustained encouragements. Also, I wish to thank Dr. Hoàng Tú and his wife to help me and Trung when we travelled to Norway. The word "happy" would lose its meaning if it was not balanced by sadness 2. Thanks to all the people around me to give me the best and wonderful gift: friendship. It is also the answer to the question of Jan to me about the meaning of life. Because Friends are born, not made 3. Friends are the sunshine of life 4. Now is the time to thank all my Vietnamese friends. Without them, my stay in the Netherlands would have been very boring. I will never forget the BBQ parties and traditional Tết dinners we had together. Let me acknowledge: anh Tạ Ngọc Trí, chị Hà, anh Thiệu, chị Nga, anh Thắng, chị Dương, bạn Chi, anh Thịnh, anh Minh, anh Đức, anh Vinh, chị Hạnh, chị Giang, anh Hà, chị 2 Carl Gustav Jung ( ), a Swiss psychiatrist. 3 Henry Brooks Adams ( ), an American journalist, historian, academic and novelist. 4 John Milton Hay ( ), an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist.

6 121 Mai Hoa, anh Kiên, chị Thư, anh Chính, chị Vân Anh, anh Thành, bạn Minh Hoàng, bạn Trọng An, bạn Minh Anh; các em: Cường, Ánh, Dũng, Tú, Thùy, Hào, Triết, Minh, Quyên; chị Việt Hiền, em Hà Thu, em Minh, anh Tuấn, em Chi; chị Thanh, chị Mai, Loan, Kiều Anh; và các cháu: Sáng, Minh Đức, bin, nấm, bống, rùa, na, ỉn, cún, gấu. And of course, "the Vietnamese committee" in Groningen, các em: Chi, Hà Lan, Hà, Thủy, Nhung, Hồ, Hảo, Hùng, Hiệu, Thái, Phạm Tùng, Tùng béo, Linh, Đàm Trang; các chị: Hồng, Hương; các anh: Tú, Dứt, Đạt, Thành, Thuận và các bạn: Hòa, Tuấn Anh. I also want to treasure the kindly help of Hà in editing the draws in my dissertation. It is very important to have mentor friends when you go abroad to study. Luckily for me, I had them all. Carla and Han, an honorable mention goes to you for your kind help and constant support since my first steps in your country. I will never forget you, Carla. In my heart, you always get a special position. I am grateful beyond words to my dear parents and my parents-in-law. They were pivotal in enabling my success, as they believed in me and supported my dreams. Words can not express the extent to which I feel indebted to them. I would like to show my greatest appreciation to bác Nhã, bác Tài, anh Huy, em An, chị Hiền, anh Kiệt, cháu Ben and my relatives. Last but not least, my most special thanks go to Trung, a highly supportive husband, for sharing the experience of the endeavor of dissertation writing with me, for listening to my complaints and frustrations. I dedicate this thesis to you. Chồng yêu, em thấy mình là người may mắn khi có anh bên cạnh em. Đặng Minh Hồng Groningen, September 2010.

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