Most children spend their tenth year trading playing cards or riding bicycles. Michael Kearney spent his walking across a stage to accept a university diploma. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1984, Kearney displayed intellectual abilities that defied standard developmental charts from infancy.
By the time he reached the age when most toddlers learn to stack blocks, he was already reading. His academic trajectory remains one of the most rapid in recorded history, securing him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records that stands to this day.
A Toddler Speaking in Full Sentences
Kearney’s development accelerated immediately after birth. His parents, Kevin and Cassidy, noted that he spoke his first intelligible words at just four months old. By the age of six months, during a visit to a pediatrician, he reportedly told the doctor, “I have a left ear infection.”
At ten months, he was reading. When he was four years old, he joined the pitifully small percentage of the population accepted into the high-IQ society Mensa. He did not attend a traditional elementary school; instead, he completed high school requirements at the age of six. His parents stated that they did not push him but simply tried to keep up with his demands for more information.
Shattering Academic Records
Following high school, Kearney enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in California. He graduated at age eight with an Associate of Science in Geology. The family then moved to Alabama so he could attend the University of South Alabama. In 1994, at the age of ten, he received his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology.
This achievement officially made him the world’s youngest university graduate. Despite his age, he maintained a high Grade Point Average. Faculty members noted that while he required a chaperone on campus due to his youth, his academic performance equaled or exceeded that of students ten years his senior.
Collecting Degrees and Prize Money
Kearney did not stop with a single degree. He immediately pursued graduate studies. By age 14, he held a Master’s degree in Chemistry from Middle Tennessee State University. At age 18, he earned a second Master’s degree in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University. Finally, at age 22, he returned to Middle Tennessee State to complete a doctorate in Chemistry.
However, Kearney did not spend his entire adulthood inside a laboratory. In 2006, he participated in the AOL reality show Gold Rush. He won the competition, taking home a grand prize of $1 million.
Two years later, he appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and secured $25,000. Throughout his life, he has worked as a teaching assistant and a chemist, maintaining a career that balances his history as a prodigy with normal adult employment.