Michael W. Michalak, was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, in 1946. He earned a BS in physics from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, in 1969, and an MS in the same field from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, in 1971. He received a second Master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1981. A career Foreign Service Officer since 1972, Michalak has worked in Tokyo, Japan; Sydney, Australia; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Beijing, China; as well as Washington, DC, where he was assigned to the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Office for Japan and the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. He received a group award for valor for his actions in time of crisis when the US Embassy in Islamabad was burned down. Prior to becoming Ambassador to Vietnam, Michalak served as the US Senior Official to APEC, Bureau of East Asia Pacific Affairs, from 2005 to 2007. He was sworn in as Ambassador to Vietnam on August 10, 2007. He speaks Chinese and Japanese.