Gotta Go Fast!

A 9-Year-Old Genius Is Getting an Engineering Degree Next Month

Next, he's planning on a doctorate and a medical degree.
Nine year old Belgian genius Laurent Simons is on track to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering this year. He plans to grow artificial organs.
Image: laurent_simons/Instagram

Speedrun

A Belgian boy named Laurent Simons is on track to finish an undergraduate engineering degree this December, meaning he’ll graduate college at the ripe old age of nine.

The child prodigy has ambitious scientific goals — after pursuing an engineering doctorate and a medical degree, Simons’ parents told CNN that he wants to develop a way to grow artificial organs.

“The absorption of information is no problem for Laurent,” his dad told CNN. “I think the focus will be on research and applying the knowledge to discover new things.”

Accelerated Track

Eindhoven University of Technology, where Simons is on track to graduate next month, told CNN that offering accelerated programs for students who can handle them is par for the course, but that they’ve never had a student quite so young.

“Special students that have good reasons for doing so can arrange an adjusted schedule. In much the same way we help students who participate in top sport,” Sjoerd Hulshof, education director of the undergraduate electrical engineering program, told CNN.

“Laurent is the fastest student we have ever had here,” he added. “Not only is he hyper intelligent but also a very sympathetic boy.”

READ MORE: Nine-year-old child genius to graduate university [CNN]

More on lab-grown organs: To Heal Injured Astronauts, Experts Want to 3D Print “Skin, Bone and Body Parts”

Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.