Michel Polak is a full professor at the Université de Paris (2002, permanent position), Faculty of Medicine. He is also head and staff physician (2002, permanent position) in paediatric endocrinology, gynecology and diabetology at the Hôpital Universitaire Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France. He is a member of the INSERM (National institute for health and medical research) U1016 team and IMAGINE (Genetics Institute at Necker University Hospital) institute.

His fields of special interests comprise: growth disorders and their treatment, disorders of sex development, perinatal endocrinology, developmental biology, endoderm derived endocrine organ development (thyroid and pancreas) and their diseases, type 1 diabetes mellitus and monogenic diabetes in young children

His training took place in Paris and during postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of genetics and microbiology, Centre Médical Universitaire, Genève, Switzerland (1997) and at Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurobiology (Pr Potter) and Section of Immunology and Immunogenetics, Elliot P. Joslin Research Laboratory (Pr Eisenbarth), Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA, USA (1989-1991).