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I enjoyed working with all of them. I was impressed with their skills and professionalism. I would like to thank them for all the assistance they provided me over the course of my research. Although they had doubts that I would ever collect enough data, they never stopped supporting me. The technicians at GRC were always willing to listen my crazy ideas and figure out how to make them a reality. I would like to thank these technicians for their high quality workmanship. Thanks especially to Pat Barber, Jim Coy, Wayne Gerber, Chris Kandrach, Mike Pastel, Rich Polak, Dennis Rogers, and Bob Roman. They will receive a copy of my diploma as proof that I actually finished my degree. Materials folks at GRC, Dave Hull, Joy Buehler, and Tiffany Biles provided assistance in analyzing my molybdenum samples. I want to thank them for helping me with sample preparation and showing me how to use the microscope equipment. I would like to thank ESML at PNNL for the use the RBS facility. I would like to personally thank V. Shutthandan and Yanwen Zhang for their willingness to schedule time for me in the laboratory. They did a professional job in the RBS analysis. Thanks, too, to the other students I worked with at GRC. Alex Kieckhafer, Sonca Nguyen, and Tyler Hickman made time in the lab go quickly. Ken Street at GRC helped me use the microbalance. I appreciated his time and willingness to support my research. I would like to thank Sharon Miller for serving as my grant monitor. Her effort to take care of the administrative aspects of the grant was appreciated. I want to thank Chris Hall for serving on my advisory committee. I enjoyed having him as a professor at Virginia Tech. I greatly appreciated the support of my family and close friends throughout my graduate school career. They never wavered in cheering me on to the finish line.

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