von der Malsburg obtained his PhD with a concentration in elementary particle physics at CERN and the University of Heidelberg in 1970.

He remained there until 1987, when he became a professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, Physics and Psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

[4] His research interests focused on processes of organization in the brain with emphasis on the structure and function of the visual system.

His publications concerning the theory of self-organization of regular fiber projections in the visual system made him a pioneer of this field.

To solve it he formulated the Dynamic Link Architecture, a system of rapidly switching network fragments, as applied to facial recognition.