字體：小 中 大 |
|
|
|
| 2006/01/20 22:57:30瀏覽561｜回應0｜推薦3 | |
| 這是我放在我的博士論文中的致謝詞原文﹐對於閱讀英文有點吃力的朋友們要說聲抱歉﹐即使要我自己從頭讀一遍也是不容易。 如果有看過前面的幾篇文章的人﹐應該對其中一些事情不陌生。其實還有許多其它的事情﹐我沒有寫在裡面。為了對整個過程有一個完整的交代﹐將神應得的榮耀歸給祂﹐我會再擇期將其它的過程和大家分享。 如果你(妳)目前在學習或者研究方面正面臨不容易的地方﹐希望這篇致謝詞能夠讓你(妳)對神的信實重新燃起盼望--- Acknowledgements I have to remind whoever is reading this part of my thesis that it is not a short one I am writing here. I feel obliged to give a full account of why I have the privilege to tell the story. And this acknowledgement is long overdue before I knew it. If anyone is planning to read on, please bear with me and some patience is appreciated. It all started when I was still a freshman in college. While my classmates, who came from all over the country (Taiwan) after fierce competition, were more than eager to have their first ever taste of the long-told fascinating college life, I was drawing a different (thought by some people to be weird) picture in mind-go to the U.S. for my Ph.D! Now you may understand why people thought that I was weird, or more generally speaking, proud and presumptuous. I was already planning to get a Ph.D when I haven’t even proved whether I could survive the college years ahead. And I had no reasonable explanation for this nearly blind passion or instinctive urge when people asked me about it. Not before long all people of all years in our department knew about my grand plan, or unrealistic dream, as someone put it. It was when I came to Princeton in the summer of 1996 that things began to become clearer to me. However, as it is written: ”No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” – 1 Corinthians 2:9. However, an incident which happened in my sophomore year nearly put off this fiery compassion. My father, who was a scholar and researcher, and was also like a friend and teacher to me, passed away due to heart failure caused by his taking chemo-therapy for the treatment of lymph tumor over a long time. The world seemed to collapse around me and I didn’t even have the least energy left to focus on studying, let along going to the U.S. for a Ph.D. Somehow, however, I still hanged in there and stumbled my way through to get to my junior year. In the beginning of that year, a new faculty member, Prof. Shiao-Ming Tseng, by showing his enthusiasm in teaching and caring for students, which reminded me of my father, rekindled the fire of study in me. I started to pick up from where I have lost and by the end of my senior year, I already finished all the courses that the department provided in the field of solid-state physics, including device physics. By now if anyone thinks that the next stage would be my coming to the U.S., please hold your thought for the moment. That indeed was my plan and well defined in my schedule. However, for some reason which is not so important and I won’t spend time on it here, I had to apply for getting into the master’s degree with only less than one month of time to prepare for the exam (I have to explain that the system is a little different from the U.S.. In Taiwan, and many other countries, you have to take some exams to be qualified to enter the master program.). Fortunately, I passed the exam by getting the second highest score among over 500 applicants. Timing has always played a mysteriously favorable role so far and there is no exception this time. Prof. Sheng-Fu Horng, who just graduated from Princeton, came to our department as a new faculty member. With everything in the lab starting from scratch, I have witnessed and learned how to establish a laboratory and conduct research. Most importantly, during the two years of my master program, I have learned the semiconductor processing techniques, which turn out to a precious asset for continuing my work at Princeton. Now one may think there should be no more complication or situation which would deter my coming to the U.S. Well, one more to come. The fact is that, in Taiwan, every male above 19 years old is required to serve in the military for about two years. After finishing my master program, I was enlisted to the Army and served as an ensign officer in the office of logistics. I submitted my applications for admission by the end of 1995 and was expecting to hear from those universities when the year 1996 began. In March, 1996, there was some political tension between Taiwan and China. China launched several missile maneuvers in the oceans near Taiwan and in response, Taiwan mobilized its militaries preparing for the worst. Because of this tense situation, every military unit was on some code-yellow (not red yet) alert. But, I was supposed to be discharged on June 1, 1996! Now you can imagine how upset I could be. During that time, which I forgot about the exact date, I got a phone call (by Prof. Shayegan!) from Princeton asking if I was interested in going to Princeton for they planned to give me admission. Of course I said yes, even under that atmosphere of uncertainty about future development of this situation. Somehow I had the confidence that it was a sign for me that everything would be fine. Thank God that it was and the situation ended with nothing coming up except the statements from politicians on both sides. Finally, I came to Princeton with my newly-wedded (we got married on June 13) wife on July 28, 1996. To make the long story short, on December 8, 1996, both of us got baptized and became Christians and our lives have been totally changed since then. And, no matter how other people may look at this, I believe this is that indescribable urge which has existed in me from my freshman year to come the U.S. for Ph.D. I am not saying that getting a Ph.D is then less important. What I would interpret it is that it’s just part of an even larger package than I figured. God somehow used that to draw me here so that I can come to know Him, which is very unlikely if I were still in my hometown. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5,6. The six years I have spent at Princeton have taken a very special place in my memory. I have come to learn some of the most important things in my life, which I didn’t pay attention in the past. For example, I learned how to work with others and listen to their opinions on subjects which I may see differently. In addition, as promising as the project itself can be, the progress of the one I have been working on was not so good as I started. Along the course of solving problems, I have learned to be more patient and analytical, instead of simply thinking everything is just trivial and treating it without proper effort. The time spent on making samples is also a brain-storming process to me, for I had to figure out an optimum configuration for fabrication. The numerous occasions to work on the SEM turn out be precious experience which makes me most familiar with the equipment. I will always remember those sleepless nights, which consist of lone and long hours of debugging and measurement. All of these are now tasting bitter-sweet to me and I really enjoyed not only their fruit, but the process as well. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28. It’s time now to say thanks to those people who have had great influences and contributions both in my life and to this thesis. Without them, I would not have gone this far and this thesis would not have been complete. Many thanks to my advisor, Prof. Mansour Shayegan, who has provided me with guidance and insightful direction over the years. The research project whose result is presented in this thesis has not run well for about two years (Amazingly, one of the unexpected fruits out of this difficult situation is Appendix B of this thesis). During that period of time, he showed full support and understanding by staying up late with me in the laboratory trying to solve the problems together. This act of caring for students serves as great encouragement for me to persevere in the course of my research. Besides, he would spend countless hours just for discussions with me about experimental details and interpretation of results. This has greatly helped me in conducting research in a more scientific way. The fact that his being awarded one of first University Graduate Student Mentoring Awards pertinently says it all, as quoted from the recommendation letter, ”We feel that by sharing so much of his time and experience with us, by instilling in us a strong work ethic and a collaborative spirit, Professor Shayegan has fully prepared us for top-quality professional and scholarly work”. It’s also a great privilege for me to have Prof. Stephen Lyon and Prof. Sigurd Wagner as the readers of my thesis. I am indebted to them for their tremendous help on a short notice. I’d also like to thank my colleagues, including some former members, generally for their friendship and company. Special thanks to Jeng-Ping Lu, who taught me everything about the SEM and provided greatly useful advices when coming to device processing. Sanjeev Shukla, who demonstrated cautious and precise attitudes towards research and lab work, was also a good example for me to learn from. Stergios J. Papadakis, whom I have the most years in overlap with, also taught me many things in handling cryogenic systems. This list won’t be complete without mentioning Etienne De Poortere for the fruitful discussions with him, Emanuel Tutuc for his assistance in taking care of the dilution refrigerator (and sharing coffee!), and Yakov Shkolnikov for his expertise in computers and help in debugging the Fourier transform algorithm for analysis validity. There are several more people whose contribution to my academic life in the Electrical Engineering Dept. of National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) should also be greatly appreciated. As mentioned earlier, if it were not Prof. Shiao-Ming Tseng who showed and led me into the exciting world of modern physics, I would not have gone this far along the course of academic work. It is the generosity to students and the enthusiasm in research of Prof. Sheng-Fu Horng, my advisor for master program in NTHU, that inspired me to appreciate the numerous wonders in physics. Last but not the least, Dr. Jian-Guang Chen, who was our collaborator working at the Telecommunication Laboratory of the Ministry of Transportation in Taiwan, was the mentor in coaching me to master all the semiconductor processing techniques. I would also like to thank my parents for their sustaining love and support towards their son who used to know nothing but studying. Not following traditional ways, they have chosen to raise their children by helping develop and encouraging whatever they are interested in learning. The blue-sky they provided turns out to be much more spacious for me and I just hope they will be as happily as I enjoy my work. Although words are not even enough to express my gratitude, I’d still like to thank my wife, Hsun-Mei, for always having faith in me and been extremely supportive to my pursuit for a career in scientific study. Her existence in my life is a tremendous blessing to me. Her constant encouragement has become the source of my strength, and her patience and understanding has contributed more than she could imagine to my work. It is she that moans with me when my experiment was not running well. It is also she that rejoices with me in tears when I measured the first good trace of my data. She is also an excellent homemaker, who makes me afford to spend as much time as I need in the lab. In my opinion, she deserves to share my Ph.D with me! |
|
| ( 心情隨筆｜雜記 ) |
