Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements
“Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing
it down”
Digging into my email box, I was able to find messages from late 2010, where I
was asking friends some advice about where I should go for my Ph.D. And I’m glad
that Groningen was on my list. These years were fantastic, both scientifically and
personally, and much is devoted to all great people I met. I thank everyone that
made my stay in Groningen so worth it and supported me to conclude this work.
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Antoine van Oijen.
Thank you for the opportunity of joining your group and I’m proud of being part of
the team you put together in Groningen. It was a great learning experience, where
I really enjoyed all the scientific freedom you gave me, the insightful discussions,
advice, and guidance.
Andrew Robinson, thank you for all support you gave me in these years. It was
great to work with you and to share many common interests. Our daily discussions
helped me greatly to clarify my thoughts and organize better my work.
Having you two as mentors made all the difference to this work and I appreciate
all suggestions, sincerity, and constructive criticisms. Thank you both for supporting
me to follow what I found interesting and to find my own path.
I would like also to thank my Assessment Committee, Bert Poolman, Erwin Peterman and Patricia Foster, for the careful read of my manuscript and for insightful comments. In addition, I thank our collaborators, Myron Goodman, Roger Woodgate
and Mike Cox, for sharing their profound knowledge on the intricate SOS-response
in E. coli. I also thank Mike Cox and Liz Wood for the nice time in the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, where I could learn my ways on Lambda-RED recombineering.
It’s never enough to say that the best part of Groningen is the people I met
there. I owe huge thanks to my colleagues at the Single Molecule Biophysics group.
In special, I want to thanks my paranymphs, Jasper van der Velde and Jochem
Smit. Although everyone said that I was crazy about choosing you guys, it could
not be someone else. Thanks Hylkje for the perfect timing when I started my
interview presentation, without you asking if I was the Argentinian guy, my slide
with a map would never fit so well. Words will not suffice to thanks also Viktor and
Michiel for the technical support. Samaneh, Jan Peter, Jelle, Marysia, Sarah, Guus,
Enrico, Lisanne, Flynn, Harshad, Evelyn, Giorgos, Joris (also for the translation
of the summary), Jason (and the Absolute Power radio station), Alex, Karl (and
Lauren), Stephanie, Paul, Rusland, Thorben and the members of the Molecular
Microscopy Group. I’ll miss our coffee breaks, weekly meetings, conferences and
discussions about all sorts of topics. I’m glad for being part of such great group of
people and to learn from such bright minds. It was a privilege to work with you!
Hope our paths crosses often in the future!
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Jannette and Magriet for the support and for helping me and the to survive the
Dutch bureaucracy.
DIYBio Groningen and all these members, especially Winand, Claudio, Richel,
Alécio, Yans and Arlette. Our attempt at developing a low-cost PCR machine was
great fun and your motivation to make science more accessible to society is inspiring.
Looking forward to seeing the what the future reserves!
Gustaw and Anne Floor, thanks for all the friendship along those years. Our
hiking trips to Norway and Italy were amazing. You definitely made my stay in the
Netherlands way more gezellig.
Talking about ”Gezellige momentjes”, I also can’t forget the Brazilian friends I
made in Groningen. Especially my flatmate Tiago, which became a great friend and
Patricia, Brenda, Sylvia, Daniel, Joana, Suzan, André and Cynthia (jejeje). It was
great to have you around and to share beers and good moments and our thoughts
about being expats.
E também não poderia deixar de lembrar dos meus amigos que ficaram no
Brasil - e que eu espero uma visita o quanto antes! Principalmente meus amigos
de Vila Velha, quem sempre fazem minhas voltas para casa serem marcadas por
boas recordações.
Gostaria ainda de agradecer à minha família. Agradeço aos meus pais Alfredo
e Rosangela por sempre estimularem meus estudos e me incentivarem a buscar
meus sonhos. Ao meu irmão Ricardo, pela amizade e por sempre estar ao meu
lado, além de ser um profissional exemplar. Obrigado também aos meus avós, por
entenderem que mesmo à distância, meu coração está sempre com eles.
E finalmente, à minha esposa, Aline . Não consigo imaginar alguém melhor ao
meu lado para dividir tantos momentos de alegria e fazer os dias na Holanda serem
mais ensolarados. Obrigado pelo apoio, motivação e paciência ao longo dessa fase.
Terminar essa longa jornada é apenas um pequeno passo numa vida guiada
pela educação. Acho que ainda vou ficar um bom tempo sem trabalhar e só estudando;). Todas as conquistas que eu obtive tiveram um pouco de vocês, que
sempre acreditaram em mim e a conclusão deste doutorado não seria diferente.
A culpa de tudo isso é de vocês e eu só tenho a agraceder. Amo vocês!
I have to add special thanks to Prof. Dick Janssen and Hein Wijma for having such a great Ph.D. student
coming from Brazil in their labs.