Michael holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Cologne, Germany. Previously, he has held research positions at universities in the USA and Germany, including Caltech, University of Washington, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Michael joined the KAUST Solar Center in 2017 as lab manager. In 2019 he took on the role as Principal Technology Lead. During the last two years he has led Mirai Solar from an R&D project into a full-scale startup with manufacturing capabilities and pilot demonstrations.