Laurent Simons successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Antwerp earlier this week.
The topic of his dissertation was “Bose polarons in superfluids and supersolids,” the university announced on its website. A Bose–Einstein condensate is an ultracold gas where particles act as one quantum object. It functions as a tunable lab for studying many-body physics, such as polarons–impurities dressed by the gas–and exotic phases like supersolids, which combine superfluid flow with crystal-like order.
Born in Belgium but now living in the Netherlands, Laurent was considered a “prodigy” from a young age. He completed high school in roughly a year at just eight years old in 2018, according to Reuters.
In 2019, he nearly set a record for earning a university degree before turning 10, but he dropped out of the Electrical Engineering program at Eindhoven University of Technology due to graduation scheduling conflicts. Instead, Laurent switched to a Physics bachelor’s program at the University of Antwerp and graduated with distinction after just 18 months, significantly faster than the usual three years.
At age 12, while his peers were typically in secondary school, Laurent completed a master’s degree in Quantum Physics.
Full-time students normally take two years, but he finished all courses in the first semester, dedicating the second semester to his thesis and internship, according to The Brussels Times.
He completed an internship in quantum optics at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, where he began exploring the intersection of physics and medicine. His master’s research specifically delved into the analogy between boson states and black holes, studying Bose–Einstein condensates at ultra-cold temperatures.
After earning his master’s degree, Simons continued to pursue a PhD, feeling that he had not yet reached his personal limits. He told TV channel VTM, “After this, I’ll start working towards my goal: creating super-humans.”
According to Newsweek and The Brussels Times, Simons has made it clear that he has been interested in the study of human immortality since he was 11, when he called it his “end goal.”
Simons has an IQ of 145, classified as “Highly Gifted” according to both the Wechsler and Stanford–Binet scales.
Right after defending his PhD, he returned to Munich with his father. He has already enrolled in a second doctoral program there, this time in medical science, specializing in artificial intelligence.