defended his PhD at the University of Antwerp on November 17, 2025, aged 15.<\/a> His thesis examined Bose polarons in superfluids and supersolids, an advanced area involving ultracold quantum systems.<\/p>\nNow 16, Simons has moved into a very different area. He is pursuing a second doctorate in medical science, with research interests involving artificial intelligence and the connection between physics and medicine. His current research profile lists whole-body imaging and interdisciplinary approaches bridging physics and medicine.<\/p>\n
A SCHOOL JOURNEY THAT STARTED VERY EARLY<\/p>\n
Simons’ academic acceleration began when he was a young child. He started primary school at four and progressed through secondary education at an extraordinary pace.<\/p>\n
At around eight, he entered Eindhoven University of Technology to study electrical engineering. Reports at the time described an accelerated three-year programme. He later moved to the University of Antwerp, where he completed a physics bachelor’s degree at 11 and a master’s in quantum physics at 12.<\/p>\n
Laurent Simons at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands (2019 image) (Photo: Reuters)\n<\/p>\n
He also gained research exposure at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics while still very young.<\/p>\n
THE DREAM BEGAN WITH HIS GRANDPARENTS<\/p>\n
Long before his PhD, Simons had already spoken about wanting to use science to extend human life.<\/p>\n
As a child, he said he wanted to develop artificial organs and eventually help people with heart problems like those suffered by his grandparents, as per reports from 2019.<\/p>\n
That makes his move from quantum physics towards medicine and AI particularly striking. For Simons, the subjects may be different, but the larger question has remained remarkably consistent: understanding the human body and finding ways to improve or extend human life.<\/p>\n
At 16, his academic journey is clearly far from over.<\/p>\n
– Ends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At an age when most teenagers are still working through school, Laurent Simons has already completed a doctoral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[306811,306810,110378,115353,306809,52433,111,139,69,21355,393,3303,147,306812,8805,259959],"class_list":["post-624209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-artificial-organs","tag-belgian-prodigy","tag-child-prodigy","tag-human-longevity","tag-laurent-simons","tag-medical-ai","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phd","tag-physics","tag-quantum-physics","tag-science","tag-science-genius","tag-success-story","tag-university-of-antwerp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}