1869 was selected to study at Annapolis Naval Academy. After graduation, he was a lecturer in physics and chemistry in this school.
1880 ~ 1882 was allowed to go to Europe for postgraduate study, and studied in Berlin University, Heidelberg University and French Academy successively.
1883 Professor of Physics, Case College of Applied Sciences, Cleveland, Ohio.
1887, he and Edward Morey conducted the famous Michelson-Morey experiment, which ruled out the existence of ether. Later, he turned to astronomical optical interferometry to measure the diameter of stars and to measure binary spectrometers.
From 65438 to 0889, he became a professor of physics at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he began a grand metrology project.
1892, he was appointed professor of physics at the University of Chicago, and later served as the first dean of the physics department of the University, where he cultivated his interest in astronomical spectroscopy.
1907, Michelson became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in physics, because of "his optical precision instruments and their help in spectrum and subway research". In the same year, he won the Copley Medal.
1910 ~1911year as chairman of the American association for the advancement of science.
1923 ~ 1927 served as president of the American Academy of Sciences.
193 1 died of cerebral hemorrhage in Pasadena, California on May 9 at the age of 79.