Belding graduated from
Florida State University in 1996 with two degrees: one in computer science and a second in
applied mathematics. Both degrees were Summa Cum Laude with Honors. She went to the University of California, Santa Barbara on a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, and completed her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in 2000. Her dissertation, under the name Elizabeth Michelle Royer, was
Routing in Ad hoc Mobile Networks: On-Demand and Hierarchical Strategies, and was jointly supervised by P. Michael Melliar-Smith and Louise Moser. She has been a member of the computer science faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2000. ==Recognition==