Michael earned his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Pittsburgh. He has been Visiting Scholar at National Yokoham University; Harvard-Yenching Scholar; Visiting Professor of Chun-Chiu Lecture at Oregon State University; EU Erasmus Mundus Masters Scholar; and Senior Researcher at the Center of Historical Research, Ohio State University. Michael is currently Research Fellow/Professor of the Institute of Taiwan History and Joint Research Fellow of the Research Center of Humanity and Social Science, Academia Sinica.

He has published Prescribing Colonization: the Role of Medical Practice and Policy in Japan-Ruled Taiwan, 1895-1945 (2009) and Katana and Lancet: The Transformation, Assimilation and Diffusion of Western Medicine in Japan (2012; in Chinese) along with 40-plus articles. Michael’s research covers Japanese colonial medicine, East Asian history of public health in the twentieth century, and East Asian environmental history. He is researching the international health network in Cold War East Asia at JHU between 2016 and 2017.