Thank you for being my muse, editor, proofreader, and sounding board

Carrying out the requisite work and then writing this thesis was, undoubtably, the most arduous task I have undertaken. However, one of the joys of having completed the thesis is looking back at everyone who has helped me over the past three, seven, and twenty-five years.

I would like to begin by thanking my three supervisors: Professors Sasha Movchan, Ian Jones, and Natasha Movchan. It is an often used cliché, but in this case it is no overstatement to say that without the consistent guidance, tutelage, support, unparalleled knowledge, and encouragement of my three supervisors, this thesis would never have existed. In particular, I would like to thank Natasha who went above and beyond to read every line of the manuscript in meticulous detail. I must say a special thank you to Sasha and Ian who, during my third year as an undergraduate, whetted my appetite for research and gave me the opportunity to study mathematics further.

Thank you also to Will Daniels and Serco Assurance for piquing my interest in industrial mathematics and providing me with such an interesting project to study during my third year as an undergraduate.

I would also like to thank the co-authors of my papers: Dr Mike Nieves for his encouragement, support and guidance; Dr Michele Brun for his hard-work, willingness to help, and knowledge, but mostly for his sense of humour; and Professor Ross McPhedran for his unsurpassed experience and knowledge of Mathematical Physics.

I should also like to thank fellow graduate student Stewart Haslinger, and indeed all the graduate students at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, primarily for giving me someone to moan at when work wasn’t progressing according to plan.

To my family, particularly my parents and sister, thank you for your love, support, and unwavering belief in me. Without you, I would not be the person I am today.

Above all I would like to thank my wife Nicola for her love and constant support, for all the late nights and early mornings, and for keeping me sane over the past few months. Thank you for being my muse, editor, proofreader, and sounding board. But most of all, thank you for being my best friend. I owe you everything.

Finally, despite my love for mathematics, the work reported in this thesis would not have been possible without the financial support of an EPSRC studentship (EP/H018514/1), for which I am grateful.

Contributor: @DanielColquitt

Source: Colquitt, D J (2013) Mathematical modelling of the dyamic response of metamaterial structures, PhD, Liverpool University

If love makes you think, then this thesis is entirely a group effort

This research was made possible by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (award number R00429634018). I also gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the University of London Central Research Fund for fieldwork expenses. My sponsors may not, of course, be best pleased to hear that what I most appreciated about the wonderful gift of full-time education free from material need was the opportunity it offered for me to daydream, to bake my own bread, to conduct a community campaign and to spend hours writing my ‘relationship diaries’. What I gained from these diversions, however, I try to recognise in this thesis: the realisation that learning does not happen as, when and where we might expect it to.

I would like to thank: Dr. Debbie Epstein for supervision during David Buckingham’s absence, and Dr. Sally Munt and Dr. Chris Richards (who both survived reading the whole thing) for their helpful and constructive comments. All the teachers who assisted my ideas at training days and workshops throughout the process, and particularly Jenny Grahame at the English and Media Centre. Participants at the Institute of Education Cultural Studies Research Group: Chris Richards, Angela Devas, Lyn Thomas, Julian Sefton-Green, Pete Fraser, Muriel Robinson, Hyeon-Seon Jeong, Chris Fanthome, Liesbeth de Block, Keith Perera, Elizabeth Funge, Rebekah Willett, Paul Ward, Jon Swain, Sue Cranmer and Shereen Benjamin.  My colleagues in Brighton Urban Design and Development played an indirect but significant role by helping me learn how to turn my ‘feelings’ about a place into political action. (Or perhaps I should thank instead the Sainsbury’s consortium and its allies in Brighton and Hove Council, for reminding me how it feels to be belittled and dismissed when you want to talk about something that matters to you…).

I am indebted to ‘Geoff’ and ‘Kate’ – most obviously for their tolerance of my repeated presence in their classrooms and persistent questioning, but more generally for their demonstration in action of the meaning of dedicated and all too frequently unsung pedagogical work.  I would like to thank all students at all stages of my work, and to mention especially Guy Barton, Matt King, Gareth Ransome, Charlie Whitaker and the others from Sussex who got me started.

Special thanks go to Professor David Buckingham – perhaps just for having faith when I didn’t, but also for doing all the things an excellent supervisor should do.  These included: making it safe to show him work by treating drafts as drafts and ‘reflecting back’ the worthwhile elements scattered within them; directing me towards just the reading that I needed to develop my thoughts; establishing structures I could cling to when I felt swamped; consistently failing to be stern, hypercritical and authoritarian when I expected it of him; and, ultimately, letting me take my own path, tortured and tortuous as it may have seemed to him.  All of which means that – as in any successful pedagogical relationship – I have learnt more from him than I can possibly put into words.

Writing up felt like being lost in a long dark tunnel. I’d be there still if it weren’t for: Rowena Herdman-Smith, Deirdre Leask, Sally Munt, Elizabeth Draper, Sophie Powell, Rachel Cottam, Karen Adler, Margaretta Jolly, Ken Pringle, John Devine, Tom Shakespeare, amongst others. If love makes you think, then this thesis is entirely a group effort.

This is especially for Melita, who knows that it is not only Dracula who is invited to appear in girls’ bedrooms at night. For Kerry, for his tales from the outside world; Tina, for the knife; for Ben, who struggles over power with me despite himself.  And finally, for Clare who is everywhere here, although only she will ever know quite how much.

Contributor: Sara Bragg

Source: Bragg, S (2000) Media Violence and Education: A Study of Youth Audiences and the Horror Genre, PhD, Institute of Education, London

Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to grow up around such wonderful people

I would like the thank my supervisors Professor Nigel R. Shadbolt and Dr David E. Millard, for their irreplaceable guidance. My sister Joy gets a special mention for putting so much time and effort into proof reading my thesis – now you know what your brother gets up to! Since starting my PhD I have had access to a wealth of knowledge and have been given the opportunity to immerse myself within a vibrant and exciting research community, and this would not have been possible without the support of my supervisors and the research group as a whole. A big thanks to all of my friends in the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia (IAM) group for making me feel at home in Southampton, without you none of this would have been worthwhile. I would also like to thank the AKTors for all of the stimulating conversations I was fortunate to be a part of.

Here I will stress the importance of my family who have supported me from day one. A big thank you to my mother Minoo, without you I would have been nothing, my sister Joy who has brought me nothing but, and my late father Paul for helping me put everything into context. Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to grow up around such wonderful people.

Following on from this I would also like to give special thanks Dr Antonis Loizou, Dr Mike O Jewell, Dr Faith Lawrence, Dr Dave P Dupplaw, Dr Harith Alani, Dr Martin Szomszor, and Dr Kieron O’Hara for their collaborative efforts during my studentship. I should also thanks Dr Mark Weal, Dr Yves Raimond, Parastou Marashi for helping proof my thesis and for being so lovely. I would also like to thank Professor Dame Wendy Hall for her support and guidance throughout the years, and would like to thank Susan Davies for everything she has done for me.

I should thank all of my friends for making my life enjoyable and eventful: Sebastien Francois for being there whenever need be, Dr Paul Groth for friendship and a critical eye, Dr Steve Munroe, Dr Simone Scaringi and Dr Antonis Loizou for making my house feel like a home. Finally, I would like to thank Dr Ashley Smith for his cynicism and company throughout.

Finally, I should also thank the people at Garlik Ltd, my current employer, who have been very supportive of my studies and my interests in the Semantic Web, Privacy, and Personal Information. And finally I should give a big thank you to Steve Harris, for showing me an enthusiasm for Web technologies, engineering, software design, and for helping me take my interests forward.

This work was supported under the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC), which is sponsored by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant number GR/N15764/01.

Contributor: @mischatuffield
Source: Tuffield, M. (2010) Telling Your Story: Autobiographical Metadata and the Semantic Web PhD. Thesis – University of Southampton