Texas physics major a college grad at 15

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WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Austin Howard just turned 16 and is excited to get his driver's license.That may be one of the few things this Wichita Falls, Texas, teenager accomplishes at the same time as his peers.Last month, he crossed a milestone that most people don't reach until they're 22 or 23 -- if they get there at all.He graduated from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls at the age of 15.He started college at 13.Not only did he complete all his college coursework in just three years, Austin -- a physics major -- graduated with a 4.0 grade point average.Austin, who wears a burgundy "Midwestern Alumni" T-shirt tucked neatly into his jeans, prefers to credit his teachers for much of his success."I'm completely aware that the '15-year-old Physicist Graduates MSU' and/or 'One of the Youngest Ph.D. Students in the Nation Will Attend the University of Texas at Dallas' are required to be part of the title of the article ... however, I do know that there would be no 'story' to tell without the aforementioned dedicated individuals," he wrote in a letter to the Wichita Falls Times Record News.When Austin was 12, he took the ACT test and scored in the top 1 percent of the nation.Those test scores, which would have qualified Austin to enter medical school or the nation's most prestigious colleges, provided an open door into Midwestern. Austin enrolled in the university's ACCESS program, which allowed him to attend college full time, earning both high school and college credits for his college coursework.He admits that he was a bit of a campus novelty for those first few days, but, before long, he felt like any other MSU student.Meanwhile, Austin also pursued piano. Music, he said, is "a friendship that can last for the rest of my life. At the rate I'm going, I could retire as a physicist fairly young. I could have another career in music. That's something I'd love to do."For now, he's headed to the University of Texas at Dallas, where he's been accepted into the physics doctorate program. He's not sure what may lie beyond his Ph.D., but expects that he may work in the new field of nanotechnology.He dreams of developing new devices that can be measured in nanometers. "Eighty thousand nanometers can fit into the width of the human hair," he explains. "You're at the level of manipulating atoms."Studying nature is the most exciting field of all, he said. "Nature's science is even more bizarre than science fiction because nature is not bounded by human imagination."When he moves to Dallas this summer, he will bring as many of his physics books as he can fit in the U-Haul."I need more book shelves," he said, describing his room at home today. "Every horizontal surface is covered with books."Physics books are the type you don't give away, he said, and nothing on the Internet can replace them.Austin is ready for the move, which he expects will be made slightly more complicated by the fact that he's only 16.But like any other graduate student, he's a fan of the McDonald's $1 Value Menu and carries a cell phone -- a fancy Palm that he straps to his belt.He's also excited about his new car. His parents recently gave him a new 2008 Honda Accord Coupe, a gift celebrating his 16th birthday, high school graduation, and college graduation, all rolled into one.Not a fan of wasting time, Austin said he doesn't surf the Internet, play video games, or read fiction books for fun. "Facts are more interesting to me," he said.As one of his first jobs, he worked recently as a teacher's assistant at MSU, where he taught several physics labs and got a taste of the challenges teachers face. Whether it's easy or hard, enjoyable or problematic "depends on who your students are," he said.At 16, Austin admits that he's not dating, and probably won't for a while. "I haven't gotten to that phase of my life," he said. "I plan to get my Ph.D. first."E-mail Ann Work at worka(at)TimesRecordNews.com.(Contact Ann Work at worka(at)timesrecordnews.com)