On 14 december 2011, I successfully defended my PhD thesis against a committee consisting of Nico Karssemeijer and Peter Lucas (as my promoters), Tom Heskes, Mathias Prokop, Boudewijn Lelieveldt, Roland Holland, Frans Vos, Marina Velikova, and Bram van Ginneken.

Just send me an email if you are interested in my work (msamulski at gmail dot com) and want to request a hardcopy of my thesis (for free). Or get it online here or here

Thanks to everyone that was at my defense, and thanks for all the presents. It was an unforgettable day. Click on more to see the photos my fiancée made.

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It has been a long time very silent on my blog, even though there has been a lot happening in my life. An emigration to Norway, leaving my family, a new employee, writing my thesis, yes, they were busy months. But now I have some time to write a new post again. A post devoted to someone we have a lot of joy with. It’s our border collie pup Texel! We named him after a Dutch island and ofcourse after the sheep-race. He’s playful, smart, energetic and just very fun. And dog trainers agree he is very promising as a sheep dog. Continue reading

Me and my fiancée spent a long weekend in London; it is the very first time that we have been to this city. We took the Eurostar high speed train from Brussels to London, and this was a comfortable and reasonably fast way to travel. We have seen just about all the major (touristic) sights, and enjoyed our time. Apart from our hotel at Harrow, which was a disappointment to us. However, the location of the hotel was quite good. It was close to the Underground Tube system, which brought us everywhere, affordable and fast. If I had to choose the best touristic sight we had, I would say the Tower of London. This amazing fortress was also used as a prison in British history. What I didn’t knew is that also the crown jewels are kept here… A must see.

View video of London.

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Happy new year everyone, or god nytt år as they say in Norway! I spend New Years eve with my fiancée in Norway, together with her friend Camilla and her boyfriend Simen. It was a nice Christmas aftermath, new years celebration and snowy vacation, where I experienced some new activities which Dutchies never do (at least as far as I know), for instance, ice fishing.
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Travelled to Norway (again), participating at the music theatre play my fiancee has written for a good cause of the Red Cross. It has been a huge success so far, and the reviews were good.

Click on the read more link to view the photo’s and some video’s.
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Being in Spain for the first time, attending the EIBIR winter school, I decided to explore Barcelona a little before flying back to The Netherlands. One day is way too short, but I had to be back in Holland to welcome my girlfriend coming from Norway. One day is short, but still I have been able to see some of the typical touristic attractions Barcelona has to offer. Click on the read more link to see some photo’s, and hopefully I’m going back to Spain with my girlfriend in the summer.
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I’ve been to the EIBIR Winter School that took place from January 17 – 22, 2010 in Viladrau, Spain to learn a lot about biomedical imaging research focused on the two leading causes of death worldwide: cardiovascular and oncologic diseases. During the five days, there were a lot of intense lectures hosted in the Hostal de la Gloria, Viladrau. To break the week, we also had a very nice excursion: a walk through the forest with a guide that took us to the house of one of the most famous bandits: Serrallonga. After the heavy week of studying, we finished our stay in Viladrau and went up into the Turo de l’Home ( ‘mountain man’ in Castilian), which is the highest mountain in the Montseny massif with a height of 1712 meters.
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I went to Norway to experience my first Norwegian Christmas with my girlfriend. The hectic Christmas shopping spree is about the same as here. Also decorating a Christmas tree is common here. But on the country side there are some other special tradions, like drinking special Christmas beer “Juleøl”; traditional pork dishes as “ribbe” are made; an enormous amount of small cakes (rosettes, christmas cookies, etc), and “julekake”, a Christmas bread filled with raisins. Keeping the fireplace burning. On Christmas Eve we have put a bowl of porridge in the barn for the “nisse”, a mythical creature that protects the farm. Also mounting the “julenek” on poles for the birds (a stalk of oats, corn) is a tradition that takes place on Christmas Eve. And on the first Christmas day it’s quite common to not sit at home, but go outside skiing which I did too with my new skies I got from my parents in law.
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