Early life
He was homeschooled by his parents, especially his mother, and accelerated in his academic career. He was diagnosed with ADD and his parents declined to use the offered prescription of Ritalin. His younger sister, Maeghan, is also a child prodigy.[1]
He spoke his first words at four months. At the age of six months, he said to his pediatrician "I have a left ear infection" [2] and learned to read at the age of ten months. [3] When Michael was four, he was given multiple-choice diagnostic tests for the Johns Hopkins precocious math program. Without having studied for the exam, Michael achieved a perfect score.
He finished high school at age 6, enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College at the age of six, graduating at 10 with an Associate of Science in Geology. He is listed in the Guinness Book as the world's youngest university graduate at the age of 10, receiving a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama
He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a master's degree in biochemistry at the age of 14. His 118-page thesis is entitled "Kinetic Isotope Effects of Thymidine Phosphorylase." His research focused on an enzyme that could potentially slow or stop the growth of cancer cells without harming health. For a while, he was the world's youngest postgraduate and the holder of several Guinness world records, but the master's degree record was broken by Tathagat Avatar Tulsi.
He taught at Vanderbilt University also in Tennessee at 16. He received a second Master's degree in Computer Science from Vanderbilt when he was 17
Contestant
In October 2006, he became a finalist on the Mark Burnett/AOL quiz/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 $1,000,000. Kearney was also a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? which aired on 25 and 28 April, 2008. He left with $25,000