Stochastic spatial models of plant diseases

Acknowledgements I could not have completed my Ph.D. without the support, guidance, and friendship of many people; it is a pleasure to acknowledge a few of them here. First, I thank my parents for their patient support and encouragement through these many years of schooling. I cannot express my gratitude to them for enabling me to pursue a career based solely on intellectual interest. They have been my first and best teachers. I thank my sister Heather for blazing the Ph.D. trail and dropping breadcrumbs to help me find my way. Six years ago, I did not know that the field of theoretical ecology existed (it does). My love of it arose largely because of the guidance of my advisor, Alan Hastings. His enthusiasm and expertise helped me gain a foothold in a field that I expect will provide me with a lifetime of challenges and rewards. He is also a Zen master of thesis advising; his subtle hints and mild suggestions kept me on course even as I pursued questions of my own devising. I thank Janko Gravner for teaching me probability, and Carole Hom and Ed Caswell–Chen for their careful comments on my manuscripts. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my wife Lisa for her kindness, intelligence, humor, and love. I took a fair amount of putting up with during this process; her encouragement kept me going when I doubted the outcome. I am forever in her debt. Also, I thank John Elway for the Superbowl wins. And whoever invented doughnuts.