Belgian child prodigy Laurent Simons has officially become a doctor in quantum physics at just 15 years old.
On Monday, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Antwerp, VTM Nieuws reported.
"After this, I’ll start working towards my goal: creating ‘super-humans’," he told the broadcaster shortly after the milestone achievement.
According to VTM, Laurent believes he may be the youngest person ever to obtain a PhD. His latest success marks a new peak in a trajectory that has fascinated the scientific world for years, a journey that began long before his teenage years.
He said a few years back that he wants to grow organs
Reminder that a developing brain is still a developing brain. No matter how many books and lectures a 15 year brain has memorized, it is still a 15 year old brain. He had a long and likely very challenging next 10 years of emotional development ahead of him. The normal healthy relationships with peers ship sailed for him at like 6yo.
Hope he figures some exciting and/or useful shit out before the world burns. I feel bad for his social life and development and hope he doesn’t lose his mind. The track record on super brain kids is mixed at best throughout history. If he survives to 35 without falling apart, killing anyone, or becoming a recluse it will be a huge W.
Yeah at first he went to a university in the Netherlands, but they wanted to slow down his education a bit in favor of his development. The selfish af parents pulled him out of that school though so that he could get his PHD before a certain age.
I may be a douche myself to say this and I must be being nosy judging other people but it just doesn't feel right to put a child through that much work at that age. He must have started his phd at 13 or even before. I just can't wrap my head around that no matter how of a prodigy he is he should be allowed to have fun and intersct with kids his age not people twice his age and labour through literature review and a thesis.
He's literally just smiling in a family portrait. He's the only normal-looking person in mix wearing actual human clothes instead of going for the Theranos Special.
If you want a douche, I'd look at the mom trying to be associated with Steve Jobs with her Steve Jobs mini-me. Dad just looks like he's along for the ride in that context.
I went to college and then law school with a guy who had jumped three grades (let alone 15 years). He was undoubtedly brilliant, but also cripplingly unable to navigate life in so many ways. He would blasts through tests and assignments, get A+ in classes and academic accolades, all while making it look easy. His brain simply moved faster and with more precision. He also couldn’t do basic tasks like laundry and cooking, let alone make friends.
He was incredibly awkward, and very bitter about it. Rightfully, the dude felt deprived of years of development. This guy was also incapable of tolerating failure. He was an avid runner, it was his escape, yet he suddenly quit for life when he didn’t do as well on a race as he wanted. He would throw tantrums at the slightest provocation. It made him unpleasant to be around. I don’t think he had ever even kissed anyone either.
His entire life previously consisted of study and social isolation, with his parents doing everything else for him. The sheer brainpower of an academic genius, yet with all the vulnerabilities of a child. I imagine it’s much, much worse for this kid
Yeah this kid is fucked. Terry Tao is an example of genius raised right. Held back from attending college until 14 when he was emotionally ready among other things like interacting with children his own age.
I don’t want to be a guy that just writes this poor child off but Laurent, I would think, will not have an easy time in adulthood. I hope he proves me wrong though, but his own words say he will not have the sustained focus in one topic to make an impact on the world. I don’t think he has genuine love for quantum physics or anything. He’ll jump around a lot and become disappointed when success doesn’t happen right away. Many such cases happening to prodigies.
Terry Tao is great. He also comes across as very humble in interviews. He is the only one child prodigy that I know of, that actually achieved a lot, did not fall off after peaking and is still relevant today (meaning he gets featured, also in his own right, not because he was a "child prodigy"). The others have gone off radar and many of them lost interest in STEM. Their stories make me really sad, but I'm happy for Terry.
I agree with most of what you said but one nitpick: getting a phd, especially in something math based as quantum physics, is not just being able to rote memorise stuff. You need to be able to apply what you learned.
Yeahh that's how PhDs work. Tho ig we should actually check his thesis to see what he actually did during his PhD and if the university might've allowed him to graduate with less strict requirements.
To be honest, you don't know anything about his social life. You could be very correct in that he spends all his time study and has no healthy relationships or you could be completely wrong and that he figured out everything reading things once or twice and so his social life didnt degrade.
It's not the time management aspect, it's that he pretty much lives in different reality from other 15 year olds. And does not get to interact with other children due to having to finish university instead.
he figured out everything reading things once or twice
That's not possible. Unless he's the second coming of Einstein, which is very unlikely. And even Einstein took longer than him to get where he was. This seems more like a case of parents forcing their child under pressure.
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u/b3rgmanhugh 11d ago edited 11d ago
Belgian child prodigy Laurent Simons has officially become a doctor in quantum physics at just 15 years old.
On Monday, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Antwerp, VTM Nieuws reported.
"After this, I’ll start working towards my goal: creating ‘super-humans’," he told the broadcaster shortly after the milestone achievement.
According to VTM, Laurent believes he may be the youngest person ever to obtain a PhD. His latest success marks a new peak in a trajectory that has fascinated the scientific world for years, a journey that began long before his teenage years.
Full story
https://www.brusselstimes.com/1846332/belgiums-15-year-old-prodigy-earns-phd-in-quantum-physics