Michael Sebek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1954. He studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he obtained Ing. degree (Diploma in Electrical Engineering) with distinction in 1978. He received CSc. degree in Control Engineering from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1981 and DrSc. degree in Automatic Control from the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1995. In 2003, he obtained Doc. degree at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 2004, he was appointed to degree Prof. by the President of the Czech Republic.

Since 1979, Michael has been with the Institute of Information Theory and Automation, one of the research institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He has held various research and managerial positions, for many years, he was Head of the Department of Control Theory. Currently, he is a part-time Senior Scientist in this department. Since 2000, he has been appointed as Manager of the Center for Applied Cybernetics at the Czech Technical University in Prague which is a new research facility that concentrates top research and development of three universities, two institutes and ten industrial companies. He is currently Head of the Department of Control Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Michael Sebek held visiting positions at the Universita di Padova, Italy in 1985; Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland in 1986; Universiteit Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands in 199/91; ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 199/95; as well as a number of short visiting appointments.

Michael's research interests include linear control and systems theory; robust control; n-D systems and filters; numerical methods and software for control and signal processing. He achieved important results in polynomial approach to linear control, contributed to robust H-infinity design and robust stability with parametric uncertainties, pioneered the theory of n-D polynomial equations and developed a bunch of efficient computational algorithms for operations, functions and equations with polynomial matrices. He published over 260 research papers in international scientific journals and conference proceedings. The Science Citation Index registers more than 250 citations of his works.

Michael Sebek has led numerous international and national research projects and has done consulting work for various industrial companies in Europe and the USA. He coordinates the European Network of Excellence for Industrial Applications of Polynomial Methods in control EUROPOLY and serves as an EC expert in the fields of control, algorithms and software.

Michael integrates research with teaching at the Czech Technical University at Prague (a Bachelor Program course Systems and Control, Master Program courses Robust Control and Nonlinear Systems,  and a Doctoral Program Numerical Methods for Control Design). In 2003, he received pedagogical degree docent (Doc.). He chairs Doctoral Studies Board in the field of Control Engineering and Robotics at the CTU in Prague. He is also a member of various boards of several other Czech Universities (Scientific Board of the Technical University of Liberec, Doctoral Studies Field Board at the Thomas Bata Technical University in Zlin). He has been invited to teach graduate courses at various foreign universities (ETH Zurich, Belgium Graduate School, and Technical University of Hamburg-Hartburg) as well as to give separate lectures at almost fifty universities in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

Michael Sebek co-founded PolyX Ltd, Prague (www.polyx.cz and www.polyx.com), the company producing software for systems, signals and control based on polynomial methods. PolyX Ltd. is a partner of The MathWorks Inc., USA. In PolyX, Michael is the CEO and leads the development of the company main product: the Polynomial Toolbox for Matlab.

Editorial work is an important part of Michael's professional life. For many years, he worked for the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board on preparation of the prestigious CDC and ACC conferences. He also served as an Associate Editor of the European Journal of Control.

Michael's activity in technical societies is remarkable. He is a Senior Member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.). He was a founding member of the Czechoslovakia IEEE Section and is currently a member of the Section Executive Committee. He founded and for many years chaired the Czech IEEE Control Systems Society Chapter. He currently works in the Executive Committee of Central European Chapter of the IEEE Engineering Management Society . Within IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) , Michael served as a Policy Committee member and, most recently, the as the Vice-Chair. He has also been working in the IFAC Technical Committee on Robust Control. He was the General Chair of the successful 16th IFAC World Congress in Prague in 2005 which was the largest Automatic Control Conference ever. He was the General Chair of the IEEE CACSD Conference in Taiwan in 2004 and organized many other smaller conferences. Michael is a member of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). Currently, he is a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and represents the Czech Republic in the European Union Control Association (EUCA) a member of its Administrative Council.

Michael holds the Czech Young Scientist Award and the Czech Government Prize. He is regularly listed in MARQUIS Who's Who in the World and in Who's Who in Science and Engineering.