Astronomical Applications Department, U.S. Naval Observatory thesis Page 5
ones as well! Also, to Dr. Mike Fanelli, thank you for helping me through the last
year of this project and for sharing my interest in star formation. Without your
guidance, this paper would not have been possible and certainly not as enjoyable
to complete!
Thank you also to the entire UIT team at Goddard Space Flight Center for
your scienti c support and letting me convince you that observing boring little
galaxies was a good idea. I thank my co-workers at the U.S. Naval Observatory for
waiting patiently for me to nish my degree while I clogged printer queues, hogged
disk space, and did not carry my full load of mission-related work. Thank you to
each of my committee members for your time and the Department of Physics and
Astronomy for your support. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the nancial
support of the Alabama Space Grant Consortium, the Sigma Xi Research Society,
and The University of Alabama.
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