Zbigniew Michalewicz

Early life and education

Michalewicz attended Warsaw University of Technology where he earned a Master of Science degree in Applied Mathematics in 1974. In 1975, Michalewicz joined the faculty of the Institute of Computer Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences as a researcher. While there, he obtained a PhD in Computer Science in 1981; and a Doctor of Science (Habilitation) degree in Computer Science in 1997.

Professional career

In 1982, Michalewicz left Poland and moved to New Zealand with his wife Ewa and son Matthew Michalewicz. He took a position with Victoria University in Wellington and left behind all of his possessions in Poland with the exception of a few personal items. In an interview, he stated that he left Poland for many reasons including the difficult economy at that time and the lack of access to scientific publications to conduct research. He emigrated to Charlotte, North Carolina in July 1989, just prior to Hurricane Hugo. He began working for UNC Charlotte where he received an offer of employment one year prior while he was still at the Victoria University. He taught at UNC Charlotte in the Department of Computer Science through 2004.

In 2004, Michalewicz accepted a position with the University of Adelaide as well as the Polish-Japanese School of Information Technology. Michalewicz is currently a professor at the University of Adelaide, the Polish-Japanese School of Information Technology, and the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Michalewicz has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies where he has led data mining and optimisation projects. He has also consulted for governmental agencies in the United States, Australia, and Poland. He served as the Chairman of the Technical Committee on Evolutionary Computation and also as the Executive Vice-President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Neural Network Council. He was the general chair of the First IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation held in Orlando in June 1994.

NuTech Solutions

Michalewicz co-founded NuTech Solutions, Inc. in 1999 with his son Matthew Michalewicz. NuTech offered technology solutions to predict business changes and helped companies prepare for these changes. In September 2003, Matthew Michalewicz left the company after resigning from the board of directors. Towards the end of 2004, he moved from Charlotte to Adelaide, Australia.

During his time at NuTech, he helped secure over $11 million in private equity investments, secure over 100 Global 1000 companies, and help the company grow to over 130 employees. Michalewicz also helped NuTech attract Bill Gaither, former CEO of Heafner Tire Group in Lincolnton, Hugh McColl, former CEO of Bank of America, and Lech Walesa, Nobel laureate and former president of Poland, to its board of directors.

In 2005, Michalewicz sold his shares of NuTech back to the company to make way for new investments into the company. NuTech was acquired by Netezza Corporation in 2008 and in 2010, IBM Corporation acquired Netezza and became the licensor of the technology licensed by NuTech.

SolveIT Software

Michalewicz is the co-founder of SolveIT Software which was founded in 2005, a few months after his arrival in Australia. The other co-founders are Matthew Michalewicz, Martin Schmidt, and Constantin Chiriac. All were the co-authors of the book Adaptive Business Intelligence.

The company develops advanced planning and scheduling business optimisation software, which helps manage complex operations using artificial intelligence. Most of the products were initially developed around the key South Australian industries of wine and grain handling, and today SolveIt has a specialist mining division due to early adoption of the companies solutions within the mining market. The software helps companies accurately predict and plan their production, supply chain, shipping and currency hedging.

Complexica

Complexica was co-founded by Zbigniew Michalewicz and his son Matthew Michalewicz. Complexica is a leading artificial intelligence software provider which can help organisations increase revenue, margin and productivity using Automated Analytics.

Publications and lectures

Michalewicz has published over two-hundred-fifty articles and has been the author or editor for twenty-five books. In addition to his published works, he has given numerous lectures throughout the world. Michalewicz has been the keynote speaker for numerous major events throughout the world. More recently he was the keynote speaker for the Integrated Planning and Optimization Summit 2012 in Adelaide, the BbSummit Australasia in 2011, and the IEEE CEC'12 in Brisbane, Australia on 10–15 June 2012.

Select articles

Michalewicz has been published in numerous journals including the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation – TEC. His works have also been cited by over 10,000 different authors.

Awards and recognition

Michalewicz was awarded the title of Professor in 2002 by then Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. He was appointed as a Business Ambassador for South Australia in 2006 by then Premier Mike Rann. He was also named as a finalist for South Australia's Science Excellence Awards for the commercialisation success of Adapative Business Intelligence in 2008 as well as a 2010 DSI Instructional Innovation Award Competition Finalist.

He was the recipient of the prestigious Pearcey Award which recognises young entrepreneurs in the ICT space that have made significant contributions and taken entrepreneurial risks. He was given the award in 2011 for his founding of SolveIT Software.

Personal life

Michalewicz is married to Ewa Michalewicz, an artist who also did the cover work for Michalewicz's book How To Solve It and numerous other of his books. Michalewicz has a son, Matthew Michalewicz who is the co-author of some of Zbigniew Michalewicz's books, including Winning Credibility, Puzzle-Based Learning and Adaptive Business Intelligence . Matthew also co-founded SolveIT Software with his father Zbigniew.

Michalewicz enjoys adventurous activities including scuba diving and skydiving. He also enjoys travelling and has visited numerous countries worldwide.