Belgian child prodigy Laurent Simons has officially secured a doctorate in quantum physics at the age of 15, completing yet another extraordinary academic milestone that continues to captivate the scientific world.
Simons successfully defended his doctoral thesis on Monday at the University of Antwerp, Belgian broadcaster VTM Nieuws reported, marking a significant moment in a journey defined by exceptional intelligence and relentless curiosity.
Shortly after the defence, the young scientist reiterated his long-term vision. “After this, I’ll start working towards my goal: creating ‘super-humans’,” he told VTM, underscoring a bold ambition he has publicly embraced for years.
According to the broadcaster, Laurent believes he may be the youngest person ever to obtain a PhD, a distinction that places him among the rarest academic talents of his generation.
Simons’ trajectory has been remarkable from the outset. He first gained international attention at the age of eight, when he completed high school and began attracting interest from global tech companies and benefactors eager to support his research potential.
His parents, Alexander and Lydia, have always maintained a cautious approach, prioritising sustainability, well-being and scientific integrity over immediate opportunities. They famously declined early offers from major firms in the United States and China, insisting that their son’s work should benefit medicine and humanity.
By 12, Laurent had already completed a bachelor’s degree in physics with distinction at the University of Antwerp, finishing the three-year programme in just 18 months. He quickly progressed into more specialised research, driven by a long-standing ambition to extend human life — an idea he has framed not as science fiction, but as a biological goal.
His academic path has been both diverse and intense. At nine, he briefly enrolled in electrical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology but left due to disputes over graduation timelines. At Antwerp, he shifted fully into physics and began integrating his interests across chemistry, medicine and artificial intelligence.
An internship in quantum optics at the Max Planck Institute in Germany further expanded his scientific horizons. There, he explored how physics could intersect with medicine, a theme that has become central to his long-term research plans.
His master’s studies led him into the complex world of Bose–Einstein condensates and theoretical analogies between boson states and black holes, work that laid the foundation for his doctoral thesis in quantum physics.
Despite completing his doctorate at an age when most students are just starting university, Laurent shows no signs of slowing down. Immediately after defending his thesis, he travelled back to Munich with his father, where he is already enrolled in a second doctoral programme — this time in medical science with a focus on artificial intelligence.
“It’s actually separate from physics,” his father explained to VTM, emphasising that Laurent’s research now spans multiple disciplines in pursuit of a unified goal: understanding and ultimately expanding the limits of human biology.
As he embarks on his second PhD, the scientific community continues to watch closely, fascinated not only by his prodigious talent but by the scale of his ambitions. For Laurent Simons, the journey is far from over — in many ways, it is only just beginning.
