Ernest A. Michael (August 26, 1925 – April 29, 2013[1]) was a prominent American mathematician known for his work in the field of general topology, most notably for his pioneering research on set-valued mappings.

Anticipating the burgeoning threat of Nazism, his family moved to The Hague, Netherlands, and then to New York in 1939.

Michael attended Horace Mann High School, graduating at age 15.

His undergraduate career at Cornell University was interrupted when he enlisted in the United States Navy (1944–46), where he served aboard the USS Kwajalein.

He was also a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study (1951–52, 1956–57, 1960–61, 1968–69),[6] ETH Zurich (1973–74) and University of Stuttgart (1978–79).