M. Kläui studied Mathematics and Physics at the RWTH University of Aachen and the University of Cambridge and obtained a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge and a Diploma in Physics from Aachen in 2001. From 2001–2003 he was the Clerk Maxwell Fellow of the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, where he worked on nanoscale spin structures. During his time at Cambridge, he also visited Nagoya, Japan and Grenoble, France. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge in 2003. He then joined the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow to work on current-induced domain wall motion before moving to the University of Konstanz. He currently leads a Starting Independent Researcher Grant research group on nanomagnetism funded by the European Research Council. He research interests range from fundamental effects, such as spin torque and spin currents to novel nanostructuring methods and applications in magnetic data storage, sensors, and logic.
Most applications based on magnetism are incompatible with domain walls, which interrupt a homogeneous magnetization. Scientists are turning this view around as they discover new ways to use an electric current to manipulate and store information in nanoscale domain walls.