Michal Biran is a professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and the Department of Asian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her PhD from The Hebrew University in 2000 and undertook postdoctoral research at IAS Princeton before joining the faculty of The Hebrew University in 2002. Her research is focused on Mongol and PreMongol Central Asia (10th-14th centuries); the Mongol Empire; nomadism; and cross-cultural contacts between China and the Islamic world. 

Prof. Biran has been awarded numerous prizes and fellowships, including the Yoram Ben-Porat Presidential Prize for Excellent Young Researcher (2004/5), the Alon fellowship for new lecturers (2003/4) and the Golda Meir Fellowship (2002/3).