When it came to writing the acknowledgements section of my thesis, I didn't know where to start. I'd been keeping track of who had helped during my PhD work but I found it really difficult to form that into something that wasn't just a list of names - I wanted people to know why I was grateful to them.
I eventually ended up with 4 groups of people: those who functionally made the PhD possible (funders and supervisors), those who gave practical assistance, those who gave moral support, and my partner (admittedly, a group of 1). My thesis is currently embargoed, so I wanted to put my acknowledgements list somewhere public. To everyone mentioned below - a thousand thank yous.
This work was generously supported by Meridian Audio Ltd and MQA Ltd. My thanks to those colleagues current and former who gave me so much freedom to pursue this idea, in particular Michael Capp, Richard Hollingshead, Bob Stewart and Laurence Hobden. I would like to thank my supervisors, Tony Tew and Gavin Kearney, for their wisdom, support, and guidance over the last few years. A team of three can be difficult to wrangle, but I think we managed it. I will never look at sentence structure in the same way again. My thanks also to Helena Daffern as my thesis (and general life) advisor - I'm sorry there are so many pages. I am also grateful to the following people for their assistance with practical aspects of this PhD: Patrick Macey and John King for PAFEC-related support; Brian Hamilton for the introduction to Mesh2HRTF; Piotr Majdack and his team at ARI for answering our subsequent many questions about Mesh2HRTF; Joel Fergusson for his knowledge of Blender and his patience; Jonathan Rainer for helping me untangle set notation; Mark Hough and Dave Turner of TSS for accommodating my ridiculous requests; colleagues at GRAS Sound and Vibration for supplying the CAD file of KEMAR, and Andrew Chadwick for his seemingly endless willingness to help build contraptions. I am also indebted to a number of people for their moral support. My officemates over the last few years, Alejandro, Evelyn and Mole - thank you for putting up with me; I'm sorry I talk to myself so much. Amelia and Naomi - the coffee breaks and the check-ins were much appreciated. Dave and Evelyn - thank you for the game-related light relief. There's always more studs to collect and holes to dig. Jude - thank you for, among many things, the cake. The many AudioLab members past and present - you've made this process far easier. Thank you for the encouragement, the ridicule, the proofreading and the distractions. My parents and my brother - thank you for not asking too many questions. To Tegan and Sara - for giving this weird kid self belief. Finally, immeasurable thanks go to my dearest Laura. It's been a long and bumpy road, but I couldn't have done it without your support, your patience, and your willingness to make dinner.
Cover photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.