Rolf-Dieter Heuer

Quick Facts

Intro

German particle physicist and the Director General of CERN since 2009

From

Germany

Scientist Physicist

Work field

Science

Gender

Male

Star sign

Gemini

Birth

24 May 1948, Bad Boll

Age

75 years

The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer (German: [ʁɔlf ˈdiːtɐ ˈhɔʏɐ]; born 24 May 1948 in Boll) is a German particle physicist and was the Director General of CERN from 2009 to 2015. He currently is the President of Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft since 2016.

Biography

Heuer studied physics at the University of Stuttgart. He then obtained his PhD 1977 at the University of Heidelberg under Joachim Heintze for his study of neutral decay modes of the Ψ(3686).

His post-doc studies include the JADE experiment at the electron-positron storage ring PETRA at DESY, and from 1984, at the OPAL experiment at CERN, where he also became spokesperson of the OPAL collaboration for many years.

Having been offered a full professorship for experimental physics at the University of Hamburg, Heuer returned to DESY in 1998. In 2004, he was appointed DESY's Research Director.

In December 2007, the CERN research council announced that Heuer will take office as CERN's Director Generalstarting 1 January 2009, following the term of Robert Aymar.

Currently he is President of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and since November 2015 member of the High Level Group of Scientific Advisors (SAM) recently set up by the European Commission.

Awards

On 15 June 2011, Heuer was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Victoria.
On 19 July 2011, Heuer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Liverpool. In his speech to the graduands he spoke of the need to bring science into mainstream culture.
On 16 December 2011, Heuer was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Birmingham.
On 13 June 2012, Heuer was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Glasgow.
On 12 November 2012, he was awarded an Edison Volta Prize.
On 5 December 2013, he was awarded the Niels Bohr Medal.
In May 2015, he was awarded a Grand Cross 1st class of the German Order of Merit.
In September 2015, Heuer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Belgrade.
On 22 November 2016, Heuer was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour.