Michal Bardecki received his Bachelor of Arts Honours in 1970 and his Masters of Science in 1973 from the University of Guelph. Before coming to the Ryerson Geography Department in 1974, Michal was a sessional instructor and a teaching assistant at the University of Guelph and an Ecological researcher with the Ministry of Natural Resources. In 1981 he received his Ph.D from York University. His areas of concentration are Wetland Conservation, Environmental Geography, and Resources Management.

During his teaching career at Ryerson, Michal Bardecki has been involved in a variety of other activities. They include being on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, joint editor of the Operational Geographer Magazine, a conjunct Professor in the Graduate Watershed Ecosystems Program at Trent University, a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, a member of the National Committee on Wetland Integration, an External examiner on the Ph.D committee at the University of Waterloo and M.Sc Committee at the University of Toronto, and a member of the Great Lakes Research Consortium as Ryerson's representative.

Bardecki has won awards including a commendation from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his contribution that helped them win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He also won Ryerson Athletics Jim Peffers Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Interuniversity Sports.