He joined NAU in 2013 after receiving his Ph.D. and M.S. from Cornell University. At Cornell, he focused on vibrational energy harvesting via piezoelectric transduction. He investigated ideal design methods, power harvesting limits, and applications of the technology to avian wildlife tracking and bio-logging. Prior to his time at Cornell, Michael worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 2006 to 2009. There he helped develop the sky crane system used to land the Mars Science Laboratory Rover (Curiosity) in 2012. Michael graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northern Arizona University in 2006.