Michael Lobo was born in Mangalore, India to Maisie Lobo (née Fernandes) and Camillo Lobo, both of Mangalorean Catholic origin. He belongs to the Bijai branch of the Lobo-Prabhu family. Michael's father was a World War II soldier. Lobo studied at Montfort High School in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, and graduated from St. Aloysius College . In 1982, he earned a Ph.D in aerodynamics mathematics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, receiving the 1983 Young Scientist Award from Indian National Science Academy.

In 1984, Lobo moved to England where he entered the Cranfield Institute of Technology on a Commonwealth Scholarship, eventually becoming a faculty member. While employed there, Lobo authored papers on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), including Time Marching - A Step-by-step Guide to a Flow Solver (Ashgate Press, 1997). Lobo has said that in his spare time he compiled a 1000-page dictionary of English words derived from Classical Greek and wrote a book on the origins of popular Rock'n'roll songs, but neither was published.

Lobo returned to Mangalore in 1993, stating he moved back because of "personal crises". After returning, Lobo pursued a personal project to write the history and genealogy of the Mangalorean Catholic families. He has self-published three titles on the subject: Mangaloreans Worldwide - An International Directory (1999), Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics 1800-2000 - A Historico-Biographical Survey of the Mangalorean Catholic Community (2000), and The Mangalorean Catholic Community - A Professional History / Directory (2002).

As of 2009, his encyclopedia covers over a thousand families and is being continually updated with names and records of new families. Lobo eventually seeks to compile the work into an encyclopedia on the subject. He has even gone on the record claiming that the Mangalorean Catholic community has the distinction of being the only community in the world to possess its own genealogical encyclopaedia.