Montgomery

If he weren't an astronomer, Mike Montgomery says he would have become a professional musician. Mike plays violin, and enjoys playing what he calls "root-based music. Old-time music, bluegrass, blues, and jazz."

Mike was born in Tennessee, and grew up in Oklahoma and Texas. He attended high school in Victoria, Texas. It was during high school that he attended a summer workshop at Ball State University. "They said 'If you want to be an astronomer, major in physics'," Mike recalls.

Mike attended The University of Texas at Austin, where he indeed majored in physics. He went on to obtain a master's degree in physics from Princeton University. Finally, he returned to UT-Austin where he received a PhD in astronomy in 1998.

Since then, Mike has worked as an astronomical researcher at The University of Vienna, in Austria, and also at Cambridge University in the U.K. He returned to The University of Texas in 2004.

His favorite hobbies include playing music, tennis, foosball (sometimes called "table soccer") pinball, and bowling.

Mike Montgomery
Research Scientist, McDonald Observatory
PhD, Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin
M.S., Physics, Princeton University
B.S., Physics, The University of Texas at Austin