| Description: | On November 20, 2013, Thijs Coenen obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the LOFAR pulsar searches. At the ceremonial defense, in the Agnietenkapel in Amsterdam, Thijs engaged in a discussion with, and was able to parry questions from, a committee including such formidable opposition as Profs. dr. Morganti, Van Den Heuvel, Hermsen and Wijers. Based on the thesis and the defense, the committee was then pleased to award Coenen the doctorate. Promotor Van der Klis next admitted Thijs to the degree of doctor of philosophy, and co-promotores Van Leeuwen and Hessels were the first to praise and congratulate the new doctor.
The main thrust of the thesis is the search for radio pulsars using LOFAR; it also describes extensions to standard single-pulse search techniques and two smaller search projects. As part of LOFAR's commissioning Thijs and the Pulsar Working Group performed two radio pulsar surveys, the LOFAR Pilot Pulsar Survey (LPPS) and the LOFAR Tied-Array Survey (LOTAS). The former survey put a limit on the fast radio transient rate and re-detected 65 pulsars, while the latter re-detected 27 pulsars and discovered 2 new ones! These discoveries bode well for future, more sensitive, pulsar surveys using LOFAR.
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