M.T. Cheung was educated at The University of Hong Kong and the London School of Economics. He has been a Nuffield Fellow, and member of the visiting staff at City University (London), Simon Fraser University, and Nanyang Technological University. Michael is also a MIEEE.

In research, Michael has written on the stochastic behavior of financial prices, mathematical modeling, micro-macro dynamics and technological change, engineering economics, and systems analysis. His most recent contribution is a "time-asymmetry principle" characterizing technology-based business processes.

Michael's role model economist is Alfred Marshall, creator of the "engine of analysis" which underlies modern economic thinking. The reason cannot be better put than by Marshall's great pupil, J.M. Keynes: "The master economist must possess a rare combination of gifts and reach a high standard in different directions, combining talents not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher. Much of this ideal many-sidedness Marshall possessed."

On a personal level, Michael is obliged to declare: "Story, sir? I have none!". However, he likes music, painting, ballet and tries to keep up on general culture, arts and sciences. He admires Mozart and Bach, Monet and Klee, Karsavina and Ulanova, Russell and Popper, and mathematicians who spend their time trying to find an odd perfect number.