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104-Year-Old Man Finishes His Doctoral Thesis And Solves 200-Year-Old Enigma

February 7, 2021

A 104-year-old man in Colombia credits the COVID-19 lockdown for helping him finally complete his dissertation.

Lucio Caicedo / Credit: @luciochiquito104/Newsflash

Lucio "Chiquito" Caicedo, who lives Medellin, received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the National University of Colombia, then earned a master's degree in Science and Technology from the University of Manchester in England seven decades ago.

He has been working on his PhD thesis for 30 years.

A complicated math problem needed to be solved before his thesis could be finished -- and that happened this year.

Credit: @luciochiquito104/Newsflash

"My PhD is about determining the maximum amount of water that can be sustainably taken from a river for energy and other purposes," Caicedo said.

The enigma is not new, it is more than 200 years old. But Lucio says he managed to solve it.

He admits the COVID-19 lockdown allowed him to focus solely on his research; it was his way of making the best of the situation.

If his dissertation is approved, he will earn his doctorate title.

Chiquito has six children, 12 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

He was married for 67 years before his wife passed away, and he told the local press that "family has been my biggest achievement."