[7] Wagner studied Physics at the Technical University in Munich with work on Mossbauer spectroscopy of iron-containing proteins.

He pursued his PhD in Biophysics at the ETH Zurich where he graduated in 1977 with studies of protein dynamics, measuring rates of aromatic ring flips and hydrogen exchange.

After graduation, he spent six months at the chemistry department of MIT to explore solid state NMR.

He learned about the nuclear Overhauser effect (nOe) and developed procedures assigning specific NMR resonances to individual amino acids in the sequence of proteins.

He accepted the position at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was hired as associate professor with tenure in 1987.

[11] Due to this achievement, Dr. Wagner was offered a full professorship, with tenure, by Harvard Medical School where he has been since 1990.