On Wednesday April 19th, Jasper Steverink successfully defended his academic dissertation ‘Postoperative Skeletal Pain; Development of Non-Opioid Treatment Strategies’ in the Academiegebouw in Utrecht. During an official oral test, five professors from the Utrecht University were given the opportunity to challenge the PhD candidate on his scientific work. A lively discussion followed whereby many aspects of skeletal pain after surgery and the development of our unique hydrogel as promising non-opioid treatment solution were debated. Jasper, supported by his colleagues Hein Jonkman and Floris van Tol, did an outstanding job of replying to all questions during the examination. Following tradition, at exactly 45 minutes into the discussion, the Beadle interrupted with ‘Hora Est’ prompting the group of professors to withdraw and deliberate on the quality of the defense. Just ten minutes later and after unanimous agreement, Jasper was awarded the title PhD from professor Jos Malda, who together with Jorrit-Jan Verlaan and Susanna Piluso coached him during this scientific work. We congratulate Jasper Steverink MD, PhD with this great achievement!