Mikhail Shaposhnikov was born in Sochi, Russia, in 1956. He got his degree from Moscow States University in 1979 and his PhD from the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1982 for his work on the problem of baryon asymmetry of the universe in grand unified theories. He worked from 1982 till 1986 as a junior research scientist and from 1986 till 1991 as a senior research scientist at the Theory Division of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). From 1991 till 1998 he worked as a staff member at the Theory Division of European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN, Geneva). In 1998 he was appointed as a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Lausanne, in 1999 he became a Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of Lausanne University. Since October 2003 he is a Professor at EPFL, leading the Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology. Since 2021, he is Professor Emeritus.