Professor Michael Wilson graduated from Colorado State University in 1980 with a B.A. with Distinction in Anthropology. He received his MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1984. He completed his internship and residency in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology at the University of Colorado in 1988, followed by his Fellowship in Medical Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center in 1989. He served on the faculty of the Department of Pathology at Duke University until 1992, when he moved to his current position.

His main research and clinical pathology interest has been in the laboratory diagnosis of bacteremia and fungemia, laboratory diagnostics for tuberculosis, and cost-effective use of laboratory tests. His main interests in anatomic pathology are in the histopathology of infectious diseases and placental pathology.

 He has had several major leadership positions in academic medicine, including Chair of the Microbiology Devices Panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Vice-Chair of the Microbiology Resource Committee of the College of American Pathologists, member of the Microbiology Consensus Committee for CLSI, and currently is Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.

Since 2008, he has been involved in increasing and improving access to Pathology services in sub Saharan Africa, including efforts to improve Pathology capacity at Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Mbarara, Uganda. He is a charter member of the Association of Pathologists of East, Central and South Africa since 2008.