In 2009 I completed my PhD at Stanford. I submitted my thesis “Chord diagrams, contact-topological quantum field theory, and contact categories” on August 21, 2009.
A local pdf is available here (1.3 MB, 229 pages).
I defended my thesis on May 29, 2009. I gave a beamer presentation; the slides are available here (4.5 MB).
thesis thesis_defencePhD Thesis