The first people to thank are the ones whose support has 
been longest-standing.  These are my mother 
(thanks, Ma'), my brother (thanks, Karl), and 
Professor Sherman D. Brown of MatSE at UIUC, who has been 
extremely supportive, even after I finished my B.S. and M.S. 
in Ceramic Engineering.  

My transition to physics and applied 
mathematics (inspired by my stay at the Technical University 
of Munich) has been a very rewarding process.  I am very happy 
to have made the acquaintance of my advisor in applied mathematics, 
Michael Tabor.  We share many common research interests, and he 
has afforded the essentials of freedom, funding, and facilities, 
allowing my work and education to truly flourish.  Additionally, 
as a classroom instructor, he has the ability to succinctly 
present the essence of very complicated methods with great 
clarity.  The rest of my committee is in physics, and has been 
as supportive of my work as a committee can be.  In particular, 
working in Don Huffman's lab has served to encourage my natural 
tendency to do ``seat-of-the-pants'' research.  On the theoretical 
side, the envigorating interaction with Dave Levermore has 
resonated with my affinity for rigor...``if the math and physics 
don't agree, find out why!''.  For all of the helpful 
``mathematical'' discussion and interaction, I am grateful 
to Moysey Brio, Jack Xin, Mac Hyman, and Jim Cushing.  On the 
side of Materials Science, I must thank David Poirier, not 
only for our discussions, but also for helping facilitate 
enlightening interactions with Ken Jackson, Bill Boettinger, 
Michel Rappaz, and Rohit Trivedi.  In addition to this, I can 
not begin to list all of the supportive friends at LANL and ANL.  

The experimental work would not have taken place without 
the expertise of Glen Galloway and Dave Burnett, and many 
of the very interesting phenomena would have gone completely 
unobserved, had it not been for the curiosity and meticulous 
work of Heather Seifert.  I must also thank Scott Fernandez 
for any velocity measurements in this work.  For their 
never-ending supply of insight and help with the silicon beasts, 
I am to no end endebted to Bob Condon, Mark Hays, and J.J. Chae.  
If I've learned nothing else during my time here, it is to coexist 
with the crazy new tools available to us!  In addition to the 
actual tickings of the beasts, I was helped through the graphics 
jungle by Dave Scruton, Marvin Landes, and Donna Kent.  
In addition, Mark Jackson and Ken Avery must also be thanked 
for their careful proofreading.  

On a final note comes the yang and ying of beaurocracy.  An 
ultimate thank you goes to the NSF and DOE for funding my years 
here, while a much more personal gratitude goes to Iris Wright 
(...and Mike Shupe...yeah...he's ying), Eva Ramirez, Lois Gorski, 
and Kathleen Leick.  Without them, life'd be more 
difficult for everyone.  

In my final semester, I've also had the opportunity to teach with 
Bill Bickel, for whose teaching abilities I've developed a great 
respect.  He does more for education, than anyone I've ever met.