Herwig Franz Schopper (born 28 February 1924) is a Czech-born experimental physicist and was the director general of
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
from 1981 to 1988.
Biography
Schopper was born in
Lanškroun
Lanškroun (; german: Landskron) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,300 inhabitants. It lies on the border of the historical lands of Bohemia and Moravia. The historic town centre ...
, Bohemia, to a family of Austrian descent. He obtained his diploma and doctorate from the
University of Hamburg studying under
Wilhelm Lenz and
Rudolf Fleischmann
Rudolf Fleischmann (1 May 1903 – 3 February 2002) was a German experimental nuclear physicist from Erlangen, Bavaria. He worked for Walther Bothe at the Physics Institute of the University of Heidelberg and then at the Institute for Physic ...
. In 1950–51 he was a research assistant with
Lise Meitner at Stockholm and in 1956–57 at the
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
under
Otto Robert Frisch
Otto Robert Frisch FRS (1 October 1904 – 22 September 1979) was an Austrian-born British physicist who worked on nuclear physics. With Lise Meitner he advanced the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fission (coining the term) and first ...
.
During these fellowships, Schopper worked on
nuclear physics and contributed substantially to the evidence of
parity violation in
weak interaction
In nuclear physics and particle physics, the weak interaction, which is also often called the weak force or weak nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interactions, with the others being electromagnetism, the strong interaction ...
s. He measured the circular polarization of
gamma rays following a
beta decay
In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron) is emitted from an atomic nucleus, transforming the original nuclide to an isobar of that nuclide. For e ...
, thought unfeasible by
Lee and
Yang, and showed in the same experiment that the
helicities of neutrino and antineutrino are opposite. Later, he was involved in an experiment to test
time reversal symmetry
T-symmetry or time reversal symmetry is the theoretical symmetry of physical laws under the transformation of time reversal,
: T: t \mapsto -t.
Since the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy increases as time flows toward the future ...
.
In 1956, he followed Fleischmann to the
University of Erlangen where he continued to do research in
optics and
solid-state physics, with emphasis on thin metal layers, which he had started at Hamburg. Also he developed, along with Clausnitzer, the first source of polarised protons. In 1957 he became
Privatdozent at the University of Erlangen.
From 1958 to 1961, Schopper was an associate professor at the
University of Mainz
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...
where he established the Institute for Experimental Nuclear Physics. In 1960–61 he worked under
Robert R. Wilson
Robert Rathbun Wilson (March 4, 1914 – January 16, 2000) was an American physicist known for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, as a sculptor, and as an architect of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), ...
at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...
to be introduced to
elementary particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...
, namely the use of electron scattering to study the structure of the proton and neutron.
Schopper was appointed professor at the
University of Karlsruhe in 1961 and director of the newly established Institutes for Experimental Nuclear Physics of TH Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre. In order to continue his research on electron scattering he set up a group to carry out one of the first experiments at
DESY. He also created a group at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
to investigate neutron scattering at high energies at the
Proton Synchrotron (PS) and
Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR). These experiments where then continued at the
Institute for High Energy Physics
State Research Center – Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) is a research organisation in Protvino (near Moscow, Moscow Oblast), Russia. It was established in 1963.
The institute is known for the particle accelerator U-70 synchrotro ...
(IHEP) in
Serpukhov, Russia. The group made important contributions to the study of neutron-proton and neutron-nuclei scattering cross sections. For this purpose, the first hadron calorimeter was developed and optimised by Monte Carlo simulations. Another group at Karlsruhe developed the first superconducting high frequency cavities in Europe, a technology which was transferred to CERN for particle separators and later for particle acceleration at
LEP.
At CERN, he was a research associate in 1966–67, became division leader of the Nuclear Physics Division in 1970, member of the directorate responsible for the co-ordination of the experimental programme until 1973 and chairman of the ISR Committee from 1973 to 1976.
In 1973 Schopper became professor at the University of Hamburg and the chairman of the directorate of DESY, serving until end of 1980.
He was responsible for the installation of the
ARGUS detector at DORIS which later resulted in the first evidence of B – B bar mixing. Also, by establishing HASYLAB at DORIS synchrotron light science became an important branch of research at DESY.
He proposed and completed the construction of the electron-positron collider PETRA which led to the discovery and study of the gluon. During his mandate, DESY, a national laboratory became as far as science was concerned an international particle physics laboratory. This included the start of the first collaboration with China.
From 1977 to 1979, Schopper was chairman of the
Association of the German Large Research Centres (now Helmholtz Association) and member of various advisory bodies of the
Federal Ministry of Research, the
Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft and the
Max Planck Society.
After being member of the Scientific Policy Committee at CERN, Schopper was elected director general and served from 1981 to 1988.
His first task was to unite the two CERN laboratories existing at that time under two Directors General. The
Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) was also proposed and constructed under his leadership. This facility allowed the verification of the standard model of particle physics, namely that it is a renormalizable field theory, leading to the award of the Nobel Prize to the theoreticians
and
t’Hooft. Furthermore, it enabled the precise determination of fundamental parameters of the electroweak force, such as the
W± and Z masses, and proved the existence of three neutrino families. Thus, this particle accelerator transformed high energy physics into a field of precision measurements and provided estimates to the mass of the
top quark
The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs Boson. This coupling y_ is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
,
Higgs boson and other supersymmetric and hypothetical particles.
LEP was approved under the condition of a reduced and constant budget with the consequence that some unique activities at CERN (e.g. ISR) had to be abandoned. Schopper was obliged to introduce a new way of international collaboration for the four LEP experiments since CERN could not provide funds for them. The experiments became rather independent activities organised in a rather democratic way bringing together hundreds of scientists from many universities and national organisations. The LEP experiments became a model for the later
LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundred ...
experiments, shaping the way this organization works today.
He contributed to the globalisation of research at CERN and was also responsible for the return of Spain and Portugal in the CERN's member states.
Schopper is professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg since 1989.
From 1992 to 1994 he was president of the
German Physical Society and president of the
European Physical Society
The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...
in 1995–97. For many years he was member of the scientific council of the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in
Dubna and of the board of trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching.
At
UNESCO, he served as member of the Physics Action Council and chairman of the Working Group on Large Facilities, president of the scientific council of the Regional Office for Science and Technology ROSTE of UNESCO in Venice (2001–2002) and in 2003–2009 he was the chairman of the international advisory committee for the International Basic Science Programs.
Schopper's vision of science without borders resulted in him becoming a founding father of
SESAME
Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is c ...
, the laboratory for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, which provides an extremely bright light source to investigate a broad range of domains from condensed matter to biology and archeology.
In 1999–2008 he became president of the Preliminary International Council and later, after the formal foundation of SESAME, of the International Council. Without his dedication this international research facility would probably not have been built.
SESAME was founded analogous to CERN, under the umbrella of UNESCO, with presently nine member states: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey. It provides an environment where countries with different political systems, traditions, religions and mentalities are able to work together peacefully.
Schopper is a founding member of
The Cyprus Institute
The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, addressing issues of regional interest but of global significance, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary research a ...
at Nicosia, Cyprus, and since 2000 Member of the board of trustees and was chairman of the Scientific Council and member of the executive committee of the board of trustees of the Cyprus Institute.
Currently, he works as an advisor and goodwill ambassador on science for peace. He writes articles about research policy, science and religion and also science and society.
Honours and awards
Honorary academic degrees
Schopper received honorary doctoral degrees from:
University of Erlangen,
Moscow State University,
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...
,
University of London,
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (
Dubna),
Institute for High Energy Physics
State Research Center – Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP) is a research organisation in Protvino (near Moscow, Moscow Oblast), Russia. It was established in 1963.
The institute is known for the particle accelerator U-70 synchrotro ...
(
Protvino
Protvino (russian: Протвино́) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located about south of Moscow and west of Serpukhov, on the left bank of the Protva River. Population:
History
Construction of an urban-type settlement intended to h ...
) and
The Cyprus Institute
The Cyprus Institute is a non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, addressing issues of regional interest but of global significance, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary research a ...
(
Nicosia
Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, Romanization of Armenian, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, Capital city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is ...
).
Awards
* Physics Prize of
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (german: Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen)Note that the German ''Wissenschaft'' has a wider meaning than the English "Science", and includes Social sciences and Humanities. is the second oldest of the se ...
(1957)
* Carus Medal of the
Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...
in
Halle (1957)
* Ritter-von-Gerstner-Medal (1978)
* GroßerSudetendeutscherKulturpreis (1984)
* Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...
(USA) (1985)
* Gold Medal of the
Weizmann Institute
The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli u ...
(Israel) with CERN (1985)
*
Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republik Germany (1989)
*
Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921.
The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...
(Österreich) (1991)
* J.E.Purkyne Memorial Medal of the
Czech Academy of Sciences
The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes ba ...
(1994)
*
Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation awarded by President Yeltsin (1996)
*
Grand Cordon of the Order of Independence awarded by King
Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...
(2003)
* Tate Medal of the
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
(2003)
*
UNESCO Albert Einstein Gold Medal, Danmark (2004)
* Silver Medal of SESAME International Council (2004)
*
UNESCO Niels Bohr Gold Medal (2005)
* Honorary Medal of the Portuguese Minister for higher education and research (2009)
* Physics Medal of first grade of the Czech Physical Society and Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists (2010)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus (2012)
* Golden Honorary Needle of DESY (Hamburg) (2013)
*
AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy (2019)
Memberships
*
Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...
in
Halle
*
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
in London
*
Academia Scientiarium et Artium Europea in Salzburg
* Corresponding member of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...
in
Munich
* Honorary member of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
* Fellow of the
Institute of Physics in London
* Fellow of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
*
Academy of Sciences
An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unite ...
in Lisbon
* Member and trustee of the
World Academy of Art and Science in San Francisco
* Honorary Member of the
Swiss Physical Society
* Honorary Member of
European Physical Society
The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...
* Honorary Member of the
German Physical Society
* Honorary Member of the
Polish Academy of Sciences
Publications and books
Scientific publications
Schopper wrote more than 200 original publications in optics, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics and accelerator technology. Some of the most important works are:
* Fleischmann R. and H. Schopper, The determination of the optical constants and thickness of the layer of absorbent layers by means of the measurement of the absolute phase change ''Z.Physik'' 129.285 (1951) (first method for the measurement of the absolute phase upon reflection of light on the thin metal layers)
* H. Schopper, The interpretation of the optical constants of alkali metals, ''Z.Physik'' 135, 163 (1953) (the abnormal optical behaviour of thin alkali metal layers does not require a special physical state of the metal)
* H. Schopper, Circular polarization of gamma rays: Further proof for parity failure in beta-decay, ''Phil.Mag.' 2, 710 (1957) (One of the experiments proposed by Lee and Yang, but considered impossible. In this experiment it was shown for the first time that the helicity of the neutrino and antineutrino are opposite.)
* G. Clausnitzer, R. Fleischmann and H. Schopper, Production of a hydrogen atom beam with parallel nuclear spins, ''Z.Physik'' 144, 336 (1956)
* H. Schopper and S. Galster, The circular polarization of internal and external bremsstrahlung, ''Nucl.Phys.'' 6, 125 (1958) (first measurement of the circular polarization of the internal bremsstrahlung of beta decay)
* J. Halbritter, R. Hietschold, P. Kneisel, and H. Schopper, Coupling losses and the measurement of Q-values of superconducting cavities, KFK-report Karlsruhe 3 / 86-6 (1968) (early publication of the study of superconducting cavities to accelerate particles)
* R. M. Littauer, H. Schopper, R. R. Wilson, Electromagnetic properties of the proton and neutron, ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' 6, 286 (1961), Phys. Rev. Lett. 7, 141 (1961) and 7, 144 (1961) (measurement of nuclear form factors, improvement of the first measurements by R. Hofstadter)
* Behrend et al., Elastic electron-proton scattering at momentum transfers up to 110 fermi-2, ''Nuov.Cim.'' 48.140 (1967)
* J. Engler, W. Flauger, AS. Gibbard, F. Mönnig, K. Runge and H. Schopper, A total absorption spectrometer for energy measurements of high-energy particles, ''Nucl.Instr.Meth.'' 106, 189 (1973) (first usage and optimization of a 'hadron calorimeter')
* V. Boehmer et al., Neutron-proton elastic scattering from 10 to 70 GeV / c, Nucl.Phys. B91, 266 (1975) and other publications (neutron-proton scattering at high energies, the ISR at CERN and at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Russia)
* L3 Collaboration, Upsilon production in Z decays, ''Phys.Lett. B'' 413, 167 (1997) and Heavy Quarkonium Production in Z decays, CERN-PPE/92-99 and ''Phys.Lett.B'' (Schopper was principal author of these publications)
* H.Schopper, The light of SESAME: A dream becomes reality, ''La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento'', 40, 199 (2017)
Books
* H. Schopper
''Weak Interactions and Nuclear Beta Decay'' North-Holland Publishing (1966)
* H. Schopper, ''Matter and Antimatter'', Pieper Verlag (1989)
* H. Schopper
''LEP — The Lord of the Rings Collider at CERN 1980–2000'' Springer Verlag (2009); with a foreword by
Rolf-Dieter Heuer
Rolf-Dieter Heuer (; born 24 May 1948 in Boll) is a German particle physicist. From 2009 to 2015 he was Director General of CERN and from 5 April 2016 to 9 April 2018 President of the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft). ...
; ; e-book
* Editor of Springer Materials, Landolt-Bornstein, Nuclear and Particle Physics
* H. Schopper and L. Di Lella, editors
''60 years of CERN Experiments and Discoveries'' World Scientific (2015); pbk
* Co-editor of several other books
See also
*
List of Directors General of CERNScientific publications of Herwig Schopperon
INSPIRE-HEP
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schopper, Herwig Franz
1924 births
Living people
People from Lanškroun
20th-century German physicists
People associated with CERN
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Experimental particle physics
German nuclear physicists
International Centre for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science Applications in the Middle East people
Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal recipients
University of Hamburg faculty
German expatriates in Sweden
German expatriates in the United Kingdom
Presidents of the European Physical Society
Presidents of the German Physical Society
Fellows of the American Physical Society