A 15-year-old quantum physics doctor has entered the AI immortality track.
The AI startup track is about to welcome a 15-year-old teenage doctor — a doctor in the field of quantum physics, no less.
Recently, Laurent Simons, known as the "little Einstein" in Belgium, successfully completed his doctoral thesis defense.
With the conclusion of this defense, Laurent, at the age of 15, has joined the ranks of the youngest physics doctors in history.
After earning the title of "15-year-old quantum physics doctor", Laurent's next step in his academic career is to enter the field of AI in healthcare.
Laurent stated that he hopes to develop "superhumans" and use advanced science to combat biological aging.
Some netizens have already mapped out a path to greatness for him:
The next step is to start building a B2B AI SaaS product and apply to join YC.
Some other netizens advised Elon Musk to seize the opportunity:
Elon Musk should keep a close eye on this young man.
Regarding this adolescent boy, some netizens have raised more practical questions. (Eating melons.png)
Then, he discovers girls...
So, how did 15-year-old Laurent make his way to the doctoral defense venue in quantum physics?
A 15-Year-Old Quantum Physics Doctor
One of the "youngest doctors", he started younger than his peers. (doge)
At the age of four, Laurent entered primary school and completed his primary education in two years. He then enrolled in a private middle school in Amsterdam.
However, even though he skipped several grades in one go, Laurent still complained that his classmates were too slow in learning.
Meanwhile, his classmates also felt a bit "crushed" —
How does he know everything??
I always answered every question quickly. Other students didn't like it, and neither did I.
For the "happiness" of himself and his classmates, Laurent transferred to a middle school in Bruges, where the school arranged one-on-one tutoring for him.
Here, Laurent's "photographic memory" ability shone brightly.
Teachers recalled that Laurent could master in just a few days what other students took ten weeks to learn.
Finally, not long after graduating from primary school, he completed all the knowledge required for the university entrance exam in just two years.
Even so, Laurent still felt "bored" because the courses were too easy.
So, in his spare time, he led a research project at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (AMC).
At the age of eight, Laurent graduated from high school and then entered Eindhoven University of Technology.
Before enrolling, Laurent's family and the school had already made a plan. They hoped he could complete his university studies before his tenth birthday, so he could become the first university graduate under the age of ten.
This meant that Laurent needed to complete a three-year electrical engineering degree in ten months.
However, after entering the university, Laurent once again demonstrated his learning ability like a "sponge", enabling him to complete the courses even faster than college students more than ten years older than him.
Sjoerd Hulshof, the education director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, said in an interview with CNN:
This child is the fastest student we've ever had here.
However, as Laurent's tenth birthday approached, things took a turn.
During a meeting with the dean and Laurent's tutor, Laurent's family was informed that Laurent could not graduate within the promised ten months but needed an additional six to eight months.
Laurent's parents rejected this arrangement and decided to let Laurent drop out and continue his undergraduate studies at the University of Antwerp.
In July 2021, 11-year-old Laurent completed his bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Antwerp and graduated with the highest score — 85%.
Just after obtaining his bachelor's degree, Laurent immediately participated in a master's program tailored for him, jointly offered by the University of Antwerp and universities in Israel, the UK, and the US.
During his studies, he went to the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics at the University of Munich and the Garching Research Center as an exchange student to study how to use lasers to detect tiny cancer cells.
In July 2022, at the age of 12, he obtained his master's degree with the best results again.
After that, he went to the University of Munich, where he had visited briefly, to pursue a doctoral degree.
In just three years, 15-year-old Laurent completed his doctoral degree in quantum physics.
During the defense, Laurent's thesis topic was "Bose polarons in superfluids and supersolids", a highly challenging topic and field.
Considering Laurent's age and looking back at the topic he chose, the title of "15-year-old doctor" is even more impressive.
What's truly surprising is not his age but the depth of the topic — Bose polarons and supersolids are at the intersection of quantum many-body, emergent symmetries, and collective phenomena. Nowadays, there are few fields where intuition can still drive the frontiers of research.
It's worth noting that Laurent is not the youngest doctor in history.
But the last time a prodigy like this appeared was more than two hundred years ago —
In 1814, 13-year-old Carl Witte obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Giessen in Germany, a record that remains unbroken to this day.
However, even if he's not the "youngest", Laurent's achievements are still unparalleled in the contemporary era.
As soon as the news came out, tech giants from around the world immediately extended attractive offers to Laurent, but his parents declined them all.
Now, at the age of fifteen, he is planning to shift from quantum physics to the forefront of medicine and pursue a second doctoral degree, this time in medical AI.
Laurent said that he hopes to develop so-called "superhumans" and use advanced science to combat biological aging.
My grandparents died of heart disease. I want to help them and other children so they don't have to lose their grandparents.
Truly a path of a genius, it's shining all the way.
However, Laurent is just an adolescent who has just entered puberty. What's he like in his daily life?
Contrary to what you might imagine, Laurent is actually a quite ordinary teenage boy in his daily life.
I sometimes stay in bed until 11 a.m.
But there are also two days a week when he has to get up early — Netflix reminders. He has to watch "Loki" on Wednesdays and "The Blacklist" on Saturdays.
After getting up, he has a simple breakfast and then finishes all the university courses.
At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, after his friends finish school and their homework, Laurent plays video games with them. His favorites are "Minecraft" and "Fortnite".
A Prodigy Under the Spotlight
Surprisingly, this 15-year-old quantum physics doctor was "raised freely".
Laurent was born in 2009. His parents are both dentists, and the family lives in a coastal city in Belgium.
Because his parents were very busy with work, Laurent lived with his grandparents before the age of nine and could only see his parents on weekends and holidays.
Laurent said that when his parents came to see him, they often took him to theme parks and sometimes traveled to the US.
Universal Studios is my favorite place.
However, in the trivial daily life, his grandparents keenly noticed something very special about Laurent.
On the contrary, Laurent's parents didn't initially notice anything different about their son. They even worried that his grandparents were "overindulgent" and that's why they thought he was special.
His grandparents always told us that he was very special. But we thought they were overestimating the child.
It wasn't until the results of a series of tests came out that the couple was shocked —
Laurent has an IQ of 145, placing him in the top 0.1% of the global population, a one-in-a-thousand level.
Even though their son was deeply labeled as a "genius", Laurent himself once said that he wanted to become a great surgeon, astronaut, or computer engineer. The couple only hoped that he could "do what he likes".
If he decides to become a carpenter tomorrow, as long as he's happy, it's not a problem for us.
However, on the other hand, Laurent's parents almost pushed their son into the spotlight themselves.
They frequently arranged interviews for Laurent and even held press conferences.
On Laurent's Instagram account, there is a photo showing him sitting in front of a TV crew, with the caption:
A busy week, all interviews!!
However, this high-intensity exposure has also raised many concerns. Some believe that this behavior of pursuing "academic speed" in exchange for media exposure is overexploiting Laurent's talent.
After reading his thesis, you raise your eyebrows and realize that someone is simply pursuing "speed". Then you start to feel sorry for this child.
Wow... Can he get along with his peers? Because that's also important... I hope he can also have a normal growth environment.
Some netizens also asked the soul question:
Can these child prodigies really achieve something in the end?
In response to these doubts, Laurent's father once replied in an interview with a Dutch media:
If a child is good at playing football, we all think it's a good thing for the media to pay attention. My son also has unique talents. Why can't we be proud of that?
Reference Links:
[1]https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1994822615723291065
[2]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50734000
[3]https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=EjV5u94AAAAJ
[4]https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Simons
[5]https://www.newsweek.com/im-11-physics-degree-plan-make-humans-immortal-1608391?utm_source=chatgpt.com