Guenter Reiss received the Diploma in Physics in 1984 and the Ph.D. in Physics in 1989 at the University of Regensburg. Following his postdoctoral work at the University of Regensburg and the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, he joined the Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung (IFW) in Dresden, where he was head of the thin film section from 1992 to 1997. In 1997, he accepted a full professorship at Bielefeld University. His main research directions are new materials and devices for spin electronics and applications in memory and sensing systems.

He received the Gaede Award of the German Vacuum Society in 1994. In the physics education program at Bielefeld University, he has developed courses that connect magnetism with semiconductor physics and modern microelectronics. He served in committees of the IEEE Magnetics Society and the German Research Foundation (DFG) and co-organized a spring meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG).