Posted on Facebook on 10 February 2018.

In all likeliness the above sentences will be exchanged between father and son in Colchester, Essex, UK on Tuesday 6 March, after Hildebrand J. Weisenborn will have successfully defended his doctoral thesis in computer science before a committee including his mentor, professor Martin Reid of Essex University. Unfortunately the defense will take place behind closed doors, so we cannot admire our son in action.

I feel very proud that my son bestows this great honor on me: earning a PhD in an exact science just like his dad has done. It has happened before in our Weisenborn family (between doctors, though not in exact science): on Thursday 15 November 1860, 6 pm, country surgeon Anton Weisenborn - my ancestor from whom I got my name - congratulated his son Gerardus - also my ancestor - on passing his exam for country surgeon, and again around 1890, when Gerardus congratulated his son Johannes - my great-grandpa's brother - on becoming a regular medical doctor.

It struck me when I was 13 and had started tracing my ancestors that good fortune and position in society vary with time, sometimes within a single life span, but almost always within a few generations. My ancestors weren't all doctors or learned men. My earliest known ancestor was a shepherd, his son a horseman, then a musician, then comes Anton the surgeon, then Gerardus the surgeon, then an architect, a traveling salesman turning civil servant and my father a garage keeper. And now father and son who have both made some name in science. Yes, I feel very proud, and not only for my son: my daughter has followed in my dad's footsteps and is a qualified car mechanic, as well as photo model, photographer and product specialist & sales person with Tesla electric cars.

The picture shows the cover of my doctoral thesis which I defended in Leyden, the Netherlands on 20 November 1985.