About
Michael is Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Informatics, part of the Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute (AIAI), Dean of Research and Innovation for the College of Science and Engineering, and academic liaison for the University of Edinburgh at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s National Institute for Data Science and AI. From 2018 to 2023, he served as Director of the Bayes Centre, the University’s innovation hub for Data Science and AI, and from 2020 to 2022 he coordinated the University’s AI Strategy as Deputy Vice Principal Research (AI). Between 2023 and 2025, he also led the University’s work on AI Adoption, supporting the integration of AI across research, teaching, and operations.
His engagement with AI began in 1999 while working on his undergraduate thesis at the University of Saarbrücken. After a year as a software engineer at an AI start‑up in Frankfurt, he began his PhD at the Technical University of Munich, developing methods to enable agents to learn optimal interaction strategies when using structured communication languages. He joined the University of Edinburgh as a Lecturer in 2004 following the completion of his PhD, and has remained at the University since, progressing to Senior Lecturer in 2013, Reader in 2017, and Professor in 2019. His research focuses on multiagent systems, with a particular interest in the development of ethical and responsible AI algorithms.
