Michael E. Fisher was a theorist who worked mainly in statistical physics, condensed matter theory (especially magnetism and superfluid helium), physical chemistry, and associated foundational and mathematical problems, including Toeplitz determinants. Following thesis work on electronic analogue computers and numerical analysis, his subsequent contributions to the theory of critical phenomena, renormalization groups and phase transitions have been influential. Later, he studied biophysics, especially motor protein dynamics.

Although born in Trinidad, Michael was mainly educated in Britain. Following a professorship at King's College London, he moved to Cornell in 1966, later becoming Horace White Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. From 1987, he had been at the University of Maryland.

From 1961 - 1975, Michael was among the world's 300 most cited scientific authors. He received the Wolf Prize in Physics (1980) as well as honorary doctorates from Yale, Tel Aviv, the Weizmann Institute and ENS Lyon. He prized his association with the academies of Edinburgh, India, Brazil and Norway, and received Trinidad's Rudranath Capildeo Award for Applied Science and Technology in 2014.

Professor Michael Fisher FRS died on 27 November 2021.