Michael is originally from Cape Town, South Africa, where he attended school at the South African College School (SACS) and graduated in Statistics and Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in 1970. From 1971 to 1994 he was on the staff of the University of South Africa in Pretoria, and during this period he spent three years in Paris, where he eventually obtained his doctorate in 1978. His academic interest is in the statistical field of multivariate data analysis, with special interest in the social and environmental sciences.