Tomasz Jakub Michalski was born in Łódź in 1951. He graduated in 1974 from the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at Łódź University. He earned a PhD in
Chemistry at the Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies in Łodź (1979).
After a post-doctoral stay at North-Western University in Evanston-Chicago he became an independent scientific worker at Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago) where he conducted research in the field of chlorophyll chemistry.
In the last period of his life Tomasz decided to give up chemistry, despite the significant success he was enjoying, and devote himself solely to writing which was his passion from a very young age. Even while struggling against severe cancer he kept writing until the last moments of his life.