Michael Sokolov was born in Moscow, Russia. He obtained his high-​school degree (Abitur) in Viernheim in Germany in 2008. In the same year he started his studies in Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). During his B.Sc. he participated in research projects at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Copenhagen and at ETH Zurich for his Bachelor thesis. In the final year of his M.Sc. at TUM Michael Sokolov carried out a research project at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA in the field of applied bioengineering. During his studies he gained work experience in internships with Roche Diagnostics, KPMG Advisory and Linde Engineering and was a scholar of German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des des deutschen Volkes) and Bayerische Eliteakademie.

He then  returned to the group of Prof. Morbidelli to start a project entitled ‘Data-​ and knowledge-​driven tools to accelerate biopharmaceutical process development’ in close collaboration with the biopharmaceutical industry. His doctoral work served as a basis to co-​found the ETH spin-​off company DataHow in 2017, which provides model-​based digital solutions to the process industry.