Michael I. Friswell graduated with a B.A. degree in mathematics from Oxford University, United Kingdom, in 1982, and a Ph.D. degree in vibration engineering from Aston University, United Kingdom, in 2000.

He was a lecturer in mechanical engineering at Aston University (1987–1993) before moving to Swansea University, United Kingdom, as a lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, and professor (from 2000). Prof. Friswell was appointed as the Sir George White Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Bristol University, United Kingdom, in 2002, and in 2009 moved to his current appointment as professor of aerospace structures at Swansea University. Prof. Friswell has a wide range of research interests, including morphing aircraft, structural dynamics, finite-element model updating, structural health monitoring, rotating machinery dynamics, model reduction methods, viscoelastic damping, nonlinear systems, acoustic emission, and active control. He has been an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow (1996–2001), a Royal Society—Wolfson Research Merit Award recipient (2005–2008), and the winner of the 2014 ASME Adaptive Structures and Materials Systems Prize.

He was elected as member of the Euorpean Academy of Engineering in 2013.