Michael Johnson has been Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Macquarie University since 2002. He was Foundation Director of the Macquarie-DEC ICT Innovations Centre (2002-2012) and he is a Director and Company Secretary of Dunmore Lang College. Formerly he was the Head of the Department of Computing (1997-2000), Associate Director of the Centre of Australian Category Theory (1999-2015) and Vice-President and Chair of the University's Academic Senate (2006-2008). He was runner up for the Inaugural (1997) Australian Award for University Teaching in all Science disciplines. He held continuous Australian Research Council large/discovery grant funding for over 20 years and he served the ARC on successive selection panels for The Australian Laureate Fellows (the highest individual award of the ARC), as well as in earlier years the Future Fellowships.

Nationally he serves on the Australian Computer Society's Professional Standards Board and he was Director of Professional Standards (2011-2015), he has chaired numerous ACS accreditation inspections, and he served on CORE's Curriculum Committee as well as the Decadal Plan for Mathematics Curriculum Committee for Universities. Internationally he is, since 2015, Deputy Chair of the Seoul Accord, he has been a consultant to two European Commission FP7 projects and he has regular academic activities at several institutions in Europe and North America. Before joining Macquarie he obtained honours degrees in Mathematics and Psychology, a Graduate Diploma of Education, a PhD in Pure Mathematics and a National Research Fellowship, and he engaged in psychological research and statistical consulting as well as industrial computing. Michael is a Fellow of the Australian Mathematical Society, a Fellow and Certified Professional of the Australian Computer Society, and a life member of the American Mathematical Society.