Biography
Michael was born and grew up in Edinburgh prior to moving to Glasgow to undertake his undergraduate degree. He completed an undergraduate Masters at the University of Glasgow in Aeronautical Engineering (MEng (hons)), and then spent a short time in the aerospace industry before moving to Brisbane, Australia to complete a PhD. He completed this at the University of Queensland in Biomedical Engineering, working on a microneedle vaccine technology (the Nanopatch). His work in this area led to a number of publications, conference presentations and patents which were licenced to Vaxxas Pty Ltd, a start-up company established with $15m funding to commercialise this technology.
In 2011 Michael joined Vaxxas as a foundational team member working on a variety of projects and leading aspects of the device development engineering. Although he enjoyed this role he chose to return to academic research in 2014 where he has been establishing new lines of research in the area of microdevices for health.
In late 2017 Michael returned to Scotland where he joined Heriot-Watt University’s School of Engineering and Physical Sciences as an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering. In this position he has built his research program focussed on simple microtechnolgies for tissue-based measurement and sensing for clinical needs.
Michael is an Academy of Medical Sciences Future Leader in Innovation Enterprise and Research (FLIER) and sits on the Science Advisor Committee of Bowel research UK.