Laurent Simons, a kid from the Belgian coastal town of Ostend, has just graduated from the University of Antwerp with a bachelor's degree in physics, making him the world's second-youngest graduate.
Eleven-year-old Simons only took a year to complete his
bachelor’s degree, which usually takes at least three years.
In a conversation with the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, Simons
said that, "I don't really care if I'm the youngest." "It's all
about getting knowledge for me."
"This is the first puzzle piece in my goal of replacing
body parts with mechanical parts," Simons said.
"Immortality" is his goal, the child prodigy said.
"I want to be able 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," he said.
To solve that puzzle, he said, "I want to work with the
best professors in the world, look inside their brains, and find out how they
think."
He finished high school in just 1.5 years and received his
diploma when he was eight years old.
He grew interested in classical mechanics and quantum
physics last year, and he became consumed with learning everything he could
about them.
He subsequently put all of his other projects on hold to focus only on this.