Claus Möbus was born in Wilhelmshaven. He attended school there and earned his high school diploma. He then studied psychology at the Technical University of Braunschweig and the University of Heidelberg. He received his master’s degree in 1970, his doctorate in 1974, and was granted the right to teach (venia legendi) in psychology in 1978. From 1977 to 1978, he served as a professor of psychology at Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin). In 1978, he became a professor of applied computer science at the University of Oldenburg. In 1986, he and his colleague Prof. Peter Gorny proposed to the Lower Saxony state government that a postgraduate program in Applied Computer Science be established. This proposal led to the founding of a full-fledged Department of Computer Science in 1988.

Depending on research grants his group Learning and Cognitive Systems was working in six research areas: (1) Applied Artificial Intelligence (Knowledge Acquisition, Data Mining, Decisions under Risk and Uncertainty), (2) Content, Knowledge, and Cognitive Engineering, (3) Learner, User and Operator Modeling, (4) Engineering of Innovative Learning and Problem-Solving Environments, (5) Rapid Prototyping of Intelligent Assistance Systems, and (6) Probabilistic Bayesian Programming. In 2011, he retired from active duty upon reaching the mandatory retirement age.

He was and is member in the program committee of several Cognitive Science Conferences [e.g. ICCM 2009-10, International Conference on Cognitive Modelling; ADHM 2010-14, International Conference on Applied Digital Human Modeling; 1^st Human Modeling in Assisted Transportation (HMAT), Belgirate, Italy; Berlin Symposium on Driver Modeling, 2010-11; DKB-2011, 3rd Workshop on Dynamics of Knowledge and Belief; ADHM 2012; International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications (COGNITIVE 2012-16); Euro-Asian-Pacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science (EAP CogSci 2015) ], and reviewer for cognitive-science-relevant journals [e.g. for the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2012-13), Neurocomputing (2014), Sensors (2015), Journal of Mathematical Psychology (2015), Transportmetrica (2016), and IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (2018)].