Lei Ma received his MSc degree from Southwest Jiaotong University, China, in 1996, and the Dorktor Ingenieur degree from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, in 2006, both in Electrical Engineering. From 2000 to 2006, he was a research assistant at the Institute of Computer Control and Automation, Ruhr-University, Bochum and the Department of Robotics and Telematics, University of Wuerzburg, Germany. He worked as an assistant professor (Akademischer Rat) at the Department of Robotics and Telematics, University of Wuerzburg, Germany (2006-2009). He also served as Deputy Director and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Zentrum fuer Telematik e.V., Wuerzburg (2007-2009), and deputy associate professor for Space System Design and Control as well as Telematics at the University of Wuerzburg (2007-2009). He has been a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China since September2009. He serves currently also as Director of the  Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, and Dean of the SWJTU International School of Education. From 2015 to 2021 he was a Vice Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering for Graduate Education, Laboratory and Internationalization, and also a Programme Director at the SWJTU-LEEDS Joint School.

Lei Ma is currently the Chair of IFAC TC3.3 and a member Board of Supervisors  of  China Association of Automation. He is also a member of IEEE, and a Vice President of the Chengdu Association of  Automation. His research and teaching achievements has been recognized with awards by the Ministry of  Education of China, China Invention Association, the Geneva Invention Exhibition and the Sichuan Provincial Goverment.