12/05/2025
A 15-year-old has just earned a PhD in quantum physics.
His name is Laurent Simons, a Belgian prodigy who has spent most of his life racing through education at a pace almost no one else on Earth has matched.
He started primary school at four. Finished by six. By twelve, he had a master’s degree in quantum physics, studying bosons, black holes, and the mathematics that describe the most mysterious parts of the universe.
This week, Belgium's "Little Einstein" completed his doctorate at the University of Antwerp, making him one of the youngest physics PhDs ever recorded. His work builds on ideas that most students won’t encounter until their twenties or thirties. But for Laurent, this trajectory has always been personal. When he was eleven, he lost his grandparents.
Since then, he says his goal has been to understand how to extend human life – not for himself, but so others can live longer, healthier lives.
Researchers describe him as having an exceptional memory and an IQ of 145, a level reached by roughly 0.1 percent of people. Tech companies in the United States and China have already approached his family with offers, but his parents have turned them down, insisting that he should grow at his own pace.
Laurent isn’t the youngest PhD ever – that record goes to Karl Witte, who earned a doctorate at thirteen in 1814 – but in modern physics, his accomplishment is nearly unmatched.
Now, at fifteen, he wants to switch fields entirely and move toward medical science. His long-term ambition is to help push the boundaries of aging research, a field that is rapidly advancing but still full of unanswered questions.
Whether he ultimately reshapes quantum physics or medicine, one thing is clear: Laurent Simons is just getting started.
📸Credit: VTM
