Yes, I did it!
Wednesday April 24th, 4pm EST, following a presentation attended by many of my fellow WimNet group members and coauthors from other groups, and following an intense and engaged period of questioning by the committee, I was pronounced Dr. Gorlatova. It was exhilarating. An exciting culmination of a 5-year Ph.D. journey and a wonderful ending of a brutal semester with a relentless series of deadlines.
Many thanks to my committee members, Professors Chaintreau, Kymissis, Maxemchuk, and Mitra. Unending thanks to my adviser, Professor Zussman, for all his support throughout the last 5 years. Many thanks to all my coauthors and colleagues throughout the years, with very special thanks to John Sarik, Aya Wallwater, Andrey Bernstein, Robert Margolies, Baradwaj Vigraham, Jianxun Zhu, Marcin Szczodrak, Mina Cong, and Sonal Shetkar.
To all the Ph.D. students out there — keep reaching for that rainbow!