He is a professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he has held the Chair of Modern English Linguistics since 2005.
Recently, he has developed the Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model, a usage-based, complex-adaptive model of language which to integrates cognitive, pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects to explain language structure, linguistic variation and language change.
[1][2] Schmid studied English and Physical Education at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Technical University of Munich.
In 1987, he graduated with a teacher diploma, but returned to Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich to complete a PhD in English Linguistics, Psycholinguistics and English Literature under the supervision of Leonhard Lipka in 1992.
In 1998, he completed his second doctorate (Habilitation) also at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.