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It's surprisingly difficult to find "child genius wants
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It can be tough having high-achieving siblings. Every family gathering becomes a battle for which child is more successful or who’s smarter than who, and before you know it you’re fist-fighting your sister in the kitchen over whether Mahler was more influential than Pythagoras.
Well, just be glad you don’t have to invite Laurent Simons
to Thanksgiving this year. This Dutch-Belgian wunderkind has not only completed
a bachelor’s degree in physics, but he did so in half the time it usually takes
and still managed to get the highest grade in his class.
“I find it flattering that people compare me with Einstein,”
Simons told The Telegraph. “But I think everyone is unique. Einstein is just
Einstein and I, Laurent, am just Laurent.”
As if that isn’t humiliating enough, this wasn’t even
Simons’ first attempt at college. After completing high school by the age of
eight, he originally enrolled in Eindhoven University in 2018 but dropped out
when college officials refused his schedule. He then took some courses at the
University of Ghent, before eventually transferring to the University of
Antwerp, where he graduated this month. Although this lost him the chance to
become the youngest ever college graduate – that distinction remains with
University of South Alabama Class of ‘94 alumnus Michael Kearney, who received
a degree in anthropology at the age of ten – Simons is sanguine.
"I don't really care if I'm the youngest,” he told
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “It's all about getting knowledge for me.”
With diploma in hand, Simons’ next step is to officially
start and complete his master’s degree, a University of Antwerp spokesperson
told The Brussels Times. After that, the goal is a PhD.
“As well as his home country, Belgium, he will be studying
in the US, Israel and the UK, too,” Simons’ father, Alexander, said. “Lots of
the world’s best universities are located [in the UK] so [it] had to be on the
list.”
And, at an age where most of us are just hoping to get
through puberty unscathed, Simons has big plans.
“Immortality, that is my goal,” he said. “I want to be able to replace as
many body parts as possible with mechanical parts.”
His vision of a cyborg-filled future isn’t just some vague
notion, though – the miniature mastermind says he’s already mapped out the path
to achieving his dream.
“Quantum physics – the study of the smallest particles – is
the first piece of the puzzle,” he said. “I want to work with the best
professors in the world, look inside their brains and find out how they think.”
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