Belgian child prodigy Laurent Simons has officially become a doctor in quantum physics at just 15 years old.
On Monday, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Antwerp, VTM Nieuws reported.
"After this, I’ll start working towards my goal: creating ‘super-humans’," he told the broadcaster shortly after the milestone achievement.
According to VTM, Laurent believes he may be the youngest person ever to obtain a PhD. His latest success marks a new peak in a trajectory that has fascinated the scientific world for years, a journey that began long before his teenage years.
Bachelor at 12
Laurent’s academic feats were already making headlines back in 2022. Then aged 12, he had just completed a bachelor’s degree in physics with distinction at the University of Antwerp, finishing the three-year programme in only 18 months.
This came after graduating from high school at the age of eight. At the time, he was already being courted by major companies and wealthy benefactors eager to support his scientific ambitions. But Laurent remained unfazed.
His parents, Alexander and Lydia, have consistently taken a cautious approach, turning down early offers from tech giants in the United States and China.
Their priority has been ensuring that Laurent’s research benefits medicine – a goal that aligns perfectly with his own ambitions. Even at 12, he made it clear he wanted to “extend life expectancy,” ultimately aiming to make humans immortal in the real, biological sense.
Laurent’s focus on combining physics, chemistry, medicine and artificial intelligence dates back years. Aged nine, he briefly enrolled in an electrical engineering programme at Eindhoven University of Technology, a trajectory he left due to disagreements over the timeline for graduation. He then shifted to physics in Antwerp.
From there, his curiosity only grew. He completed an internship in quantum optics at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, where he began exploring how physics could intersect with medicine. His master’s research delved into the analogy between boson states and black holes, studying Bose–Einstein condensates at ultra-cold temperatures.
Now, as a newly minted doctor in quantum physics, Laurent is far from slowing down.
Immediately after his PhD defence this week, he travelled back to Munich with his father, where he is already enrolled in a second doctoral programme in medical science with a focus on artificial intelligence. "It’s actually separate from physics," his father explained to VTM.
