'Immortality is my goal': 11-year-old boy gets bachelor’s degree in Physics

“Age does not matter when you really wish to do something.” Well, this phrase is often heard motivating people to do whatever they aspire to despite the age factor. And proving the same an 11-year-old boy, Laurent Simons, from Belgium has obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Antwerp, becoming the 2nd youngest graduate after Michael Kearney, who received his degree in anthropology at age of 10.

According to a report from the De Telegraaf – a local newspaper – Laurent Simons, 11, not only got a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics in just 1 year instead of 3 years but also got “a higher distinction than all other students after graduating with 85 percent.”

Simons told De Telegraaf that (translated by Newsweek), “I don’t really care if I am the youngest. It’s all about getting knowledge for me.” Moreover, the extraordinary boy seems to have plans for the future after achieving this astonishing achievement.

Laurent Simons wants to achieve Immortality

The second youngest graduate and 11-year-old prodigy plan to turn himself into a “Cyborg” aiming to live forever. He targets to replace all his biological body parts with the mechanical ones, that’s what a cyborg really means.

“This is the first puzzle piece in my goal of replacing body parts with mechanical parts,” Simons said. “Immortality, that’s my goal. 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 added.

Jaw-dropping facts about Laurent Simons

At age of 1.5 years, Simons completed high school and received a high school diploma at 8 years of age. Simons could have completed his graduation much earlier but because he dropped out of the Eindhoven University in the Netherlands in 2019 when he was just 9 years old because the faculty refused to let him do the degree before turning 10.

The extraordinary kid wishes to work with the best professors and says that “I want to work with the best professors in the world, look inside their brains and find out how they think.” So that he can apply that knowledge in fulfilling his goal.

Also this year he will further continue his studies as a spokesperson from the University of Antwerp told De Telegraaf that, “This year, Laurent Simons also took some courses from the master’s program. After the summer, he will officially start his master’s degree.”

Simons family runs an Instagram account that features the 11-year-old’s activities and has more than 55K followers.

“If a child can play football well, we all think the media attention is great. My son has a different talent. Why should he not be proud of that?” said Simons’ father, Alexander Simons.