Michael Friedrich Zaeh was born in Coburg/Bavaria/Germany in 1963. After elementary school and high school in Vaterstetten near Munich and his service in the German armed forces he studied mechanical engineering at the Technische Universität München with internships at a tool and die shop, a machine tool builder and an automotive supplier. Suggested by Professor Dr. Joachim Milberg his Diploma thesis was awarded the student prize of the VDW, the German machine tool builders´ association.

Michael Zaeh started his career in the year 1990, assuming a position as Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute of Machine Tools and Industrial Management of the Technische Universität München (iwb), where he received his doctorate in the year 1993 with a thesis about a dynamic process model for circular sawing. From 1994 until 1995 he had been head of a department under the new director of the institute, Prof. Dr. Gunther Reinhart.

In 1996 Michael Zaeh joined Gleason-Pfauter Maschinenfabrik GmbH, a builder of machine tools for manufacturing of gears, where he worked in the research laboratory and in the design department during the first year. Later he was promoted head of the order management department. Since 1997 he was a member of the management group. From 1998 until 2002 he worked in an ERP-system-implementation project at four production sites and three sales agencies of the Gleason Corporation. During that time he stayed in Rochester, N.Y., USA, for two years and he worked also in South Korea, Great Britain, Brazil and Japan.

In the year 2002 Michael Zaeh accepted the position of full professor for machine tools and manufacturing technology. Prof. Dr. Michael Zaeh is a member of acatech, the German academy of technical science, of the WGP (German Scientific Society for Production Technology), of the WLT (Scientific Society of Laser Technology) as well as of several other institutions.

Prof. Dr. Michael Zaeh is married and father of one son. He lives with his family in Garching close to the campus of the Technische Universität München.

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