According to an early Newsweek article, an 11-year-old child prodigy has climbed in prominence to become one of the world’s youngest college graduates after getting a bachelor’s degree in physics from Belgium’s University of Antwerp.
And the genius finished his studies two years ahead of schedule, in just one year.
Laurent Simons earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in just one year.
Laurent Simons, a native of the Belgian city of Ostend, stood out among his peers after graduating with an impressive 85 percent and finishing the course in just one year instead of the usual three.
Even though Simons may have graduated at an even earlier age, in 2019, he dropped out of Eindhoven University in the Netherlands at the age of nine. However, officials refused to graduate until December 26, when he turned ten years old.
“I don’t really care if I’m the youngest […] it’s all about getting knowledge for me, ” says Simons while speaking to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “This is the first puzzle piece in my goal of replacing body parts with mechanical parts. Immortality is my goal. I want to replace as many body parts as possible with mechanical parts. I’ve mapped out a path to get there. You can see it as a big puzzle. Quantum physics — the study of the smallest particles — is the first piece of the puzzle .”
Simons remarked that his two main goals in life are to acquire and apply knowledge, with the latter requiring him to collaborate with the best instructors the modern world has to offer. He also wants to “see inside their brains and see how they think,” which is odd.
According to The Brussels Times, a spokeswoman for Antwerp University confirmed his graduation and distinctions, saying: “Simons has been studying for his bachelor’s degree in physics since March 2020, and he recently graduated with 85 percent, which is the greatest distinction.”
In the field of physics, this young talent has a promising future.
“This year, he also took some courses from the master’s program,” the spokeswoman stated. “After the summer, he will officially start his master’s degree.” After Simons dropped out of Eindhoven, his father, Alexander Simons, said that the university had punished him for obtaining too much media attention, which may have seen to fawn over the conventional “boy wonder” cliché. In an article from De Volkskrant, Simons’ father, Alexander Simons, remarked, “If a child can play football well, we all think the media attention is excellent.” “My son has a different talent. Why should he not be proud of that?”
As of this writing, an Instagram account managed by the Simons family to highlight the accomplishments of their brilliant kid had more than 51,000 followers, indicating that the family will have no trouble building the boy’s brand, connecting him with like-minded professors, and ensuring that he has every available opportunity an ambitious physicist could want from a post-coronavirus world.
Let us hope Laurent Simons is the next Einstein or Stephen Hawking, someone with a unique aptitude capable of revolutionizing our knowledge of the universe and deepening our comprehension of the world we live in.
Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The Sized delivered to your inbox daily.
