acknowledgements.tex

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This work would not have been possible without the patience of my supervisors, Gil~McVean and Mark~McCarthy.
If my work will prove to be useful, it is because of their guidance.

I dedicate this thesis to my parents, for their unconditional love and their relentless efforts to support me in my studies.
% even if this meant to withhold information such as the funeral of my grandmother, the \n{2} heart-attacks of my father, and his extended stay in hospital following an accident.
I also want to express my gratitude to my mentors, who have guided me over the years, and those who taught me valuable lessons, during my time as a Bachelor student, during my time as a Master student, and in between;
to Nico Michiels (Eberhard Karls Universit\"at T\"ubingen, Germany) who was the first to spark my interest in statistics,
to Christopher Bartlett (James Cook University, Australia) who made my first research project possible,
to the people of Vanuatu who will always have a special place in my heart
(I was the scientific advisor to a marine protected area),
% to the lawyers who sued me for \texteuro\n{100000} due to copyright violations in my online blog (they taught me a lesson in stress resilience),
to the people of Laos who taught me to appreciate the small things in life
(I was a teacher in a Buddhist temple school),
% to Brandon Havemann who was the best teacher I ever had and who nourished my fascination for biology
% (when I became a safari guide in the Kruger National Park, South Africa),
to Mikael Thollesson (Uppsala Universitet, Sweden) who fostered my enthusiasm for Evolutionary Biology,
to Sophie Caillon (Universit\'e de Montpellier \rom{2}, France) who showed me that communication is key,
to Scott Edwards (Harvard University, United States) who stopped working on a crucial grant application
to write a recommendation letter for my application to the University of Oxford,
to Dirk Metzler (Ludwig-Maximilians Universit\"at Munich, Germany) who taught me to not blindly trust any statistical results.
Lastly, I want to thank my friends for their support and their understanding.




%Being the first in my family to pursue higher education at university level