Much of the credit for the encouragement to complete this project goes to Manfred Kappes. His patience and optimism as a teacher have my highest respect. His confidence in my skills kept this project going. I am also thankful to him for a wonderful and influential experience in Germany where some of this work took place.

The list of people who have contributed to the time and education represented in this dissertation is wonderfully long. In Evanston, Illinois, Stuart Pollack and Chris Wang helped this research get started. A significant portion of the experimental results from Evanston is credited to the consistent efforts of Joanna Hunter. Thanks and credit also go to George Alameddin, Tina Dahlseid, Geoff Koretsky and Shengzhong Liu.

I give a great deal of thanks for the kindness and friendship of the group at Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Karlsruhe: Susanne Haupt for her work and perpetual help, Julian Kaller for always thinking of new ideas, Rainer Beck and Patrick Weis for their experienced advice, and of course Götz Bräuchle, Hans Eisler, Martin Gegenheimer, Oliver Hampe, Rudi Michael, Sabine Richard and Karsten Störmer.