xii
Acknowledgements
science and life. I thank Prof. Sanjay Puri and Dr. T.D. Senguttuvan for their ever
enthusiastic view of physics and academia that has always motivated me to someday
go back to my home country. Jay Joshi and Manasi Patwardhan have been my
guardian angels in this foreign land, I’m indebted to them for this. I thank all of
my friends and family I have missed mentioning by name here.
I thank Kacey Acquilano, Douglas Milton, Judy Wilson, Robert Sprankle, and
Jonathan Fuller for helping me traverse administrative nooks and corners in graduate
school. I thank Nathan Ellis for teaching me very patiently how to machine parts
out of a large variety of materials. I thank Jeffrey Koski, Chris Cowulich, Stanley
McFall, and Robert Page for machining the 1K cryostat and the tiny MACOR
parts which I doubt other machinists would be able to pull off with such ease
and precision. I thank Eric N. Smith for his boundless enthusiasm for and endless
knowledge of Low Temperature Physics which he would freely share with students
of this subject.
I thank Shri Krishna for introducing me to the beauty of physics at crucial
moments of my life and blessing me with the opportunity of working on experimental physics when I least expected it.
Finally, I thank my wonderful parents and sister for always being there for me. It
is extremely difficult to put into words the immense gratitude I feel towards them.
I will not be able to do justice to this task but here’s a small attempt. My father
was one of the key people in my life who instigated my interest in science and
physics with his emphasis on understanding things deeply. My sister and I spent
numerous hours drinking copious amounts of Gimme coffee and discussing matters
both scientific and personal. My mother and I chatted on the phone at random hours
of the day, whenever I needed to speak to a close friend. The unwavering support
of my family has been a great blessing and a source of strength that I drew upon
throughout my graduate school time. Their visits to Ithaca have grounded me and
made me realize that I am never far from my home country.
Acknowledgements
science and life. I thank Prof. Sanjay Puri and Dr. T.D. Senguttuvan for their ever
enthusiastic view of physics and academia that has always motivated me to someday
go back to my home country. Jay Joshi and Manasi Patwardhan have been my
guardian angels in this foreign land, I’m indebted to them for this. I thank all of
my friends and family I have missed mentioning by name here.
I thank Kacey Acquilano, Douglas Milton, Judy Wilson, Robert Sprankle, and
Jonathan Fuller for helping me traverse administrative nooks and corners in graduate
school. I thank Nathan Ellis for teaching me very patiently how to machine parts
out of a large variety of materials. I thank Jeffrey Koski, Chris Cowulich, Stanley
McFall, and Robert Page for machining the 1K cryostat and the tiny MACOR
parts which I doubt other machinists would be able to pull off with such ease
and precision. I thank Eric N. Smith for his boundless enthusiasm for and endless
knowledge of Low Temperature Physics which he would freely share with students
of this subject.
I thank Shri Krishna for introducing me to the beauty of physics at crucial
moments of my life and blessing me with the opportunity of working on experimental physics when I least expected it.
Finally, I thank my wonderful parents and sister for always being there for me. It
is extremely difficult to put into words the immense gratitude I feel towards them.
I will not be able to do justice to this task but here’s a small attempt. My father
was one of the key people in my life who instigated my interest in science and
physics with his emphasis on understanding things deeply. My sister and I spent
numerous hours drinking copious amounts of Gimme coffee and discussing matters
both scientific and personal. My mother and I chatted on the phone at random hours
of the day, whenever I needed to speak to a close friend. The unwavering support
of my family has been a great blessing and a source of strength that I drew upon
throughout my graduate school time. Their visits to Ithaca have grounded me and
made me realize that I am never far from my home country.