Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz was a self-proclaimed German doctor and alchemist who had an uncanny knack for reinterpreting up-time science in a down-time framework, and making a bundle of money in the process. Gribbleflotz also claimed that he was a great-grandson of Paracelsus. As viewed by the more professional doctors, Gribbleflotz was seen as a charlatan and a money-maker. In fact, he was a competent technician with the down-time equivalent of a mail-order diploma.