Thomas Klinger, born in 1965 in Eutin/Germany, studied physics at the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel. After a research period in France he obtained his PhD in 1994 with a thesis on non-linear plasma dynamics. As a research assistant at the University of Kiel, Klinger was concerned with drift wave turbulence and nonlinear plasma structures. As visiting scientist he conducted research at the Alfvén Laboratory in Stockholm, the Centre de Physique Théorique and the Université Aix-Provence in Marseille and Max-Planck-Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching. He obtained his habilitation in 1998 with a thesis on the control of plasma instabilities. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Greifswald, where he has headed the Institute of Physics as chair from 2000 till 2001. He is head of the “Stellarator Dynamics and Transport” Division and since 2005 scientific director of the project Wendelstein 7-X.