Michael graduated from the University of Leeds, and subsequently joined British Gas where he worked on a range of projects of relevance to safety and environmental impact, including work on industrial burner/furnace design. He re-joined the University of Leeds in 1998, being promoted to a Chair in Thermofluids and Combustion in 2005.

His research interests are in the areas of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, chemical kinetics and combustion, and heat transfer, with particular emphasis on the development and use of computational fluid dynamic techniques.

With over 40 years of experience in industry and the academic sector, he has published widely on single- and multi-phase flows, and combusting flows, and has authored >400 peer-reviewed publications and been involved in projects supported by UKRI (including EPSRC and Innovate UK) and industry worth £16M since joining the university sector, and has been principal investigator on projects worth >£19M. He has won awards for his publications, process safety contributions, collaborations with industry and public engagement.