Michael Hamm earned his physics diploma in 1993, and his doctorate in electrotechnics in 1997 from the University of Darmstadt, Germany.

He joined Bosch’s lighting division in 1996. After becoming section manager, he worked twelve years as department manager at Bosch and their successor company Automotive Lighting/Marelli , with the main task to develop front lighting technologies in headlamp projects for customers worldwide. In this period, he pushed optical development and simulation as well as lighting innovations. Examples were the development of adaptive HID systems (e.g., curve light; adverse weather light, motorway light…) as well as automotive infrared applications. He contributed to the development of LED systems, including the world’s first full-LED headlamp; LED modules; camera-controlled adaptive partial high beam functions (ADB), and light guide and DRL developments.

Hamm took charge of headlamp development at Audi in 2012. For ten years, his focus was to constantly introduce new technology in Audi lamps for market readiness with his team and the suppliers. Examples from this period include the introduction of generations of matrix-beam ADB headlamps; dynamic turn indicators and DRLs; laser high beams, and lighting Digitalization with digital projectors. He has contributed to 76 technical papers and applied for 85 invention patents.

Since 2022 he has returned, as a lecturer for vehicle lighting and lighting technology, to the Laboratory of Adaptive Lighting Systems and Visual Processing at Technical University Darmstadt.