He is known for his scientific works on the development and application of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging in metabolic diseases, sensorimotor representation, language production, and cognitive processing, cerebellum, thalamus, and basal ganglia.

Currently, Wolfgang Grodd is a research scientist at the Department of the High-Field MR at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.

After serving as a temporary soldier in the German Army from 1959 to 1964 and training as an electronics technician, W. Grodd obtained his Abitur (high school diploma) in 1968 at Westfalen Kolleg in Bielefeld and studied biology from 1968 to 1977 and medicine from 1974 to 1981 at the University of Tübingen.

The following year, W. Grodd was appointed Professor of Neuroradiology at the Steglitz Clinic of the Free University of Berlin, but declined.

From 1995, he was professor and head of the scientific section Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of the Central Nervous System at the University Hospital of Tübingen, where he gave his farewell lecture in 2010.