A new model of dissertation defense? (#1389)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

Eldest Son successfully defended his doctoral dissertation this past Friday. When he finishes making changes to his dissertation and gets them approved, he will be the fourth Ph.D. in the family. That’s Mom, me, Middle Son, and now Eldest Son. He’ll also be the fifth Dr. Rebelsky in our family. I say in our family because there are other Dr. Rebelskys out there in the world, just not in our family. At some point, I should look into the other Rebelskys (and Rebelskis and other variants thereof). Some may be related. Some almost certainly are not. But for now, I’m just proud of Eldest Son.

His was clearly a post-pandemic defense: He presented in Grinnell, while his committee was in Massachusetts (and possibly elsewhere). As I discussed with some older faculty members, it was different from what we recall our defenses being in other ways, too. In most cases, our defenses had an audience of about seven people: our committee, two or so fellow grad students, and, perhaps, a partner or spouse.

In contrast, Eldest had a wide range of people in both the physical and online audiences. I think I counted about twenty people in person and another thirty-five online, although there was some overlap between the two groups. For example, Middle Son and Youngest Son helped moderate the Zoom room, and two of their best friends helped. I was also on Zoom and in person; I forget why.

Who else was there? Lots of faculty: Two close friends from Chemistry and one from Biology, three early-career Math faculty, one young Stats professor, Eldest’s former Math advisor, and three colleagues from CS. Others, too: Two of his best friends from high school and college, another friend from the community. Possibly a few others; I didn’t keep track.

What about online? That’s where we saw the real advantages of a partially online defense. There, we had so many kinds of people. Relatives, including Michelle’s brother, Michelle’s cousin, my like a sister, and Eldest’s godmother. Two more of his best friends from high school. Friends from college. Middle Son’s best friend (or at least oldest friend). Another of Middle Son’s close friends. Some members of Eldest’s World of Warcraft guild. (I don’t think they knew his real name until now.) His Chemistry advisor. Other Chemists. His high-school Math teacher (or maybe middle-school). And, of course, a few folks from his research lab. Possibly a few others; I didn’t know everyone’s name.

Surprisingly, broad attendance at a defense is not unique. Well, the WoW guild may be somewhat unique. But I attended online defenses for two of these folks as well as Middle Son’s, which I attended both in person and online. I plan to attend one of Middle and Eldest’s best friends’ defense online this spring. Eldest and Middle drove to Chicago for that friend’s sibling. (That’s one I attended online.) Middle Son also had a variety of in-person attendees, not just fellow Chem grad students, but also nearby friends (and not-so-nearby), the aforementioned close faculty friends from Chemistry, one of my ex-students, and more.

I have no idea whether it’s just this crowd of people or whether the world has changed more broadly, but I’m pleased to see how supportive these communities are of the new Ph.D.s.`

In any case, I’m proud of Eldest Son, both for his work and for building a community of colleagues and friends who support him. For much more, too. Michelle and I did well.

Postscript: I wrote this on Saturday. Technical issues prevented me from posting it until Monday.

Version 1.0 released 2026-01-03.

Version 1.1 of 2026-01-05.