Michael is a cognitive psychologist and a mediator. He graduated from the Psychology Department of Saint Petersburg State University in 2009. In 2012 Michael joined the Smolny faculty. There he taught courses on social psychology, conflict resolution and mediation, as well as statistical analysis in cognitive studies. In 2015 Michael joined the International Situations Project as a member of the Russian research team. In 2020/2021 he also taught at HSE-St. Petersburg. His course on cognitive psychology became the ‘Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills’ based on students’ voting.
His research in cognitive psychology focuses on the Stroop interference, the learning process, implicit theory of self-efficacy and discrete perception. During his work at SPSU (also as a part of a Smolny team) from 2011 till 2022 he was a project leader in 7 research projects funded by different scientific grant organizations. He has publications in high-ranking scientific journals and has presented his findings at many international conferences.
In 2012 Michael completed a Russian-American Conflict Resolution program and became a certified mediator. As a specialist in conflict resolution, he mediates in family and business conflicts. At SPSU Michael participated in organization of different international conferences and in 2016 he became the head of the program committee for the International Smolny Student Conference (SMOLCON).