I gave my PhD dissertation seminar last Friday (09/21/2018), and successfully passed my defense! It’s official: thrillingly, AAAS is no longer mistaken when they print “Dr. Cathleen Balantic” on their mailers to me.

My PhD funding continues through the end of the year, and I’ll be working on getting papers published and wrapping up our AMMonitor code review and software documentation. This January, I start as a postdoctoral researcher on a new remote acoustic monitoring project in collaboration with the National Park Service.

It’s a little surreal to realize I’ve managed to persist through the many periods of self-doubt and make it to this point. I’ve been fortunate to work with truly wonderful people, and am grateful to everyone who has supported me along the way. Onward!