Michael did a BSc(Adv) with the University of Sydney. After getting the University of Sydney Science Achievement Prize in 2000 for getting the best weighted average mark for a BSc student, he graduated with first class honours and a medal in 2001. He then did his PhD on Geometric Seifert 4-manifolds over aspherical bases for the next three and a half years. Just before submitting his PhD he moved to Orange to become a lecturer at University of Sydney's Orange campus in 2004. When the campus was transferred to CSU in 2005, Michael transferred too and he has been there since.

At CSU Michael has been Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Associate Head of School and occasionally an Acting Head of School. He has taught (and researched) in mathematics, statistics, data science and occasionally IT. Within CSU he has helped build or improve some of the systems: he is the product owner for the Quality Assurance and Reflection (QUASAR) system; he also helped update the Academic Workload Manager (AWM) tool.

Personally, Michael tries to be supportive to both students and staff.