Michael Kearney

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Multiple issues Template:Infobox person Michael Kevin Kearney (born January 18, 1984) is an American college teaching assistant and game show contestant. He is known for setting several world records related to graduating at a young age, as well as teaching college students while still a teenager. Additionally, as a game-show contestant, he has won over one million dollars.<ref name=boston2010 />

Early life

Michael was homeschooled<ref name=boston2010 /> by his mother and father, especially his mother, a Japanese American.<ref name=LATimes-95>Template:Cite news</ref> He was diagnosed with ADHD, but his parents declined to use the offered prescription of Ritalin. His younger sister, Maeghan, is also a child prodigy<ref>Middle Tennessee State University, "The Record": "Veterinarian-to-be, age 9, set to receive her 'sheepskin' May 11", 2002 - Template:Webarchive</ref> and graduated from college<ref name=NYT/> at the age of sixteen. According to psychology professor,Template:Clarify Kearney was helped to adjust well to his surroundings by his parents' determination, and the "take-on-the-world" attitude they passed down to him.<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref>

Kearney attended San Marin High School in Novato, California, for one year, graduating at the age of six in 1990.<ref name=boston2010 /><ref name=AP>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1994, Kearney and his parents were on The Tonight Show.<ref name=abc2006 /><ref>Template:IMDb title</ref>

College education

Kearney graduated from high school at 6 and went to Santa Rosa Junior College in Sonoma County, California, where he obtained an Associate of Science in Geology at age 8.<ref name=AP/> In 1993, his family moved to Alabama.<ref name="whiz">Template:Cite news</ref> Circa 1996, he was interviewed by Meredith Vieira on Turning Point (ABC News).<ref name=abc2006 />Template:Better source As of 2025, Kearney remained the youngest person to have a high-school diploma and undergraduate degrees.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At the age of 8 he enrolled at The University of South Alabama, where he received in 1994 a bachelor's degree in anthropology and is listed in the Guinness Book as the world's youngest university graduate at the age of ten.<ref name=boston2010 /><ref name=LATimes-95/><ref name=NYT/><ref name=AP/>

Research and teaching

Kearney graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a master's degree in biochemistry at the age of fourteen.<ref name=bizjournals2006 /> His 118-page thesis was entitled "Kinetic Isotope Effects of Thymidine Phosphorylase";<ref>under Professor Paul C. Kline, http://www.mtsu.edu/programs/forensic-science/#t-4</ref> the research focused on the kinetics of a glycosyltransferase involved in nucleotide synthesis. At the time, Kearney was the world's youngest postgraduate (the master's degree record was since broken in 1999 by Tathagat Avatar Tulsi).

In 1996, the family moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee,<ref name=whiz/> and Kearney attended Vanderbilt University, taking classes and, by age fourteen,<ref name=huffpo2010 /> teaching as well (he was not yet legally able to drive).<ref name=boston2010>Template:Cite news</ref> Kearney received his second master's degree, this one from Vanderbilt University, at age seventeen<ref name=huffpo2010>Template:Cite web</ref> or eighteen,<ref name=bizjournals2006 /> in computer science. Kearney received his doctorate in chemistry at age 22,<ref name=huffpo2010 /> having returned to Middle Tennessee State University as a teaching assistant (also in chemistry).<ref name=abc2006 /><ref name="bizjournals2006"/>

Involvement with game shows

When young,Template:Vague Kearney attempted a career as a game-show host; he and his parents movedTemplate:When to Hollywood, to shoot a pilot episode, but the proposed game-show was not picked up.<ref name=boston2010 /><ref name=abc2006>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2006, Kearney became a finalist on the trivia-and-puzzle game Gold Rush, winning $100,000. In November 2006, in front of a national audience on Entertainment Tonight, he went on to win the grand prize of an additional $1 million.<ref name=bizjournals2006>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Pittsburgh">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Kearney was a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? which aired on April 25 & 28, 2008, winning<ref name=huffpo2010 /> twenty-five thousand dollars. He was also a contestant on Million Dollar Password which aired on June 14, 2009, but he did not pass the elimination round (losing the tiebreaker).

Life after education

In 2018, he was working for an improv theater group in Nashville.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Intellectual giftedness

External links

• Template:Cite web

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