Acknowledgments Just the other day a new neighbor moved into my apartment building. He too grew up in Atlanta, and will enter as a graduate student in the Math Ph. D. program. He looked so young! Somehow more than writing my thesis and preparing to move to Ohio, seeing him made me reflect back on my time at Columbia. I’ve changed so much! Beyond even my development as a scientist I realized I am so much more self confident and mature than when I came here, five years ago. And I know I owe much of these changes to Miklos. It’s not been an easy road. I always excelled in the formal structure of the classroom; I’m amazed by how Miklos helped to guide my difficult transition to independent researcher. I’m grateful to take away some of his love for esoteria, hard work, and simple analytic estimation. And I don’t know of any other advisor who so actively supports his students’ nascent careers. In the recent Techqm phonecalls I haven’t even needed to announce my name when talking; everyone in the field knows me by voice—although there is the possibility that this is more of a statement about me! I’ve also felt and appreciated the support for me as an apprentice scholar throughout the field, first and foremost from the Columbia group: I’ve en- joyed and benefited from the discussions with Al Mueller, Bill Zajc, and Brian Cole. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to stay in Frankfurt without the help of Walter Greiner, Carsten Greiner, Dirk Rischke, and especially Horst St¨ ocker, all of whom I learned from. I want to thank Ivan Vitev for arranging xxiv