Meet the 15-year-old prodigy trying to unlock the secrets to human immortality
Laurent Simons is only 15, but he is already moving toward a goal that could shape the rest of his life. He wants to help people live longer and stay healthier. So far, that path has taken him through a PhD in quantum physics and into medical science, where he is now focusing on artificial intelligence. He does not describe that mission in dramatic terms. Instead, Simons talks about it like someone studying a system that has not been solved yet. “The way I look at death is as a huge puzzle with many pieces from many different fields, including biology, medicine, engineering, and physics, that haven’t been assembled yet,” said Simons. “My mission is to help put all of those pieces together.” That outlook grew from something personal. His grandparents have cardiovascular disease, and seeing that shaped the direction of his life early. Rather than accepting illness as something inevitable, he began thinking about what it would take to understand it more deeply. A Belgian teenager has earned a doctorate in quantum physics at …
