PhD thesis defense in Germany

I am going on a 10-day tour of Egypt this Friday -- a much anticipated trip for me of course. Now I am just trying to wrap up everything in work before I leave. Somehow, time is never really enough. :-(

Also on Friday, a Japanese colleague working closely with me for the past year will give his PhD thesis defense. He's leaving for the next job in Japan at the end of the year. He's absolutely one of the smartest students I've met; no doubt, he will have a great career ahead. Too bad I wouldn't be able to meet him again and celebrate together with him before he leaves....

The German educational system is quite different from the Anglo-American system, which is more familiar to most people. In terms of the format of PhD thesis defense (at least in the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, widely regarded as one of the best universities of Germany), there are some very old surviving traditions that I was simply shocked to learn about. First of all, unlike an American defense, which always consists of a ~45-minute-long open presentation, followed by both public and private question sessions, the PhD thesis defense at LMU is closed to the public, held in the Dean's Office before the committee only. The presentation is only 20 minutes long, but most shockingly, the candidate is not allowed to use PowerPoint or transparencies! Instead, he/she will only have a pen and whiteboard to his/her disposal in the defense. I couldn't believe it!!! How are you supposed to present scientific data with a whiteboard? Draw the curves by hand? Unbelievable! This really should be changed, but somehow tradition still prevails. Then in the argument session, it's common for the committee members to ask totally unrelated questions to your research area, such as (true) "What is the life time of a proton?" So be prepared! The thesis will be graded according to the quality of content and the execution of defense, and be accorded honors such as summa cum laude, magna cum laude, etc. Interesting to know how differently it is conducted here.