I also spent a lot of time having stuff explained to me. His work is pretty complicated, so I will try to make it as simple as possible. First, some background for his research. Semiconductors are tiny devices used in all sorts of electronics such as your computer, radio, CD player and watch. They are made out of crystals, such as silicon or gallium arsenide.
Crystals are solids that have very specific structures.
They are made up of a unit cell with certain atoms in set positions, and the unit cell is repeated throughout the crystal in a specific pattern. However, these crystals are usually not magnetic. Physicists would like to have semiconductors that are magnetic as well. This would give the crystal a whole new set of properties that could be taken advantage of. Experimentalists are starting to grow these crystals, but it is also important to predict what properties the crystals will have before time and money is spent growing them.