Rolf-Dieter Heuer (; born 24 May 1948) is a German

particle physicist Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and ...

. From 2009 to 2015 he was

Director General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

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 Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

and from 5 April 2016 to 9 April 2018 President of the German Physical Society (

Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...

). Since 2015 he has been Chair of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

Group of Chief Scientific Advisors The Scientific Advice Mechanism is a service created by the European Commission which provides independent science advice on request directly to European Commissioners. The Mechanism consists of three parts: the Group of Chief Scientific Advis ...

, and since May 2017 he has been President of the

SESAME Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a 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 cultivated for ...

Council.

Biography

Heuer studied physics at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

. He then obtained his PhD 1977 at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

under Joachim Heintze for his study of neutral decay modes of the Ψ(3686). His post-doc studies include the

JADE Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

experiment at the electron-positron storage ring

PETRA Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...

DESY DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (English: ''German Electron Synchrotron''), is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to ...

, and from 1984, at the OPAL experiment at

, 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 The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

, 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 would become CERN's Director General starting 1 January 2009, succeeding

Robert Aymar Robert Aymar (1936 – 23 September 2024) was a French physicist who was the Director General of CERN (2004–2008), serving a five-year term in that role. Life and career Aymar was born in 1936 in France. After studying at the ''École Polytec ...

. In 2011 Heuer gave a talk ''The High Energy Frontier Past, Present and Future'' at the international symposium on subnuclear physics held in Vatican City. Since November 2015, Heuer has been a member of the

set up by the European Commission. In 2016 he became President of the

, and in May 2017 the President of the

Council. In 2022, Heuer was appointed a member of the African Synchrotron Initiative Think Tank with a view to set up a Pan-African project for the African Light Source.

Awards

*On 15 June 2011, Heuer was awarded an honorary degree by the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

. *On 19 July 2011, Heuer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

. 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 The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. *On 13 June 2012, Heuer was awarded an honorary degree by the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. *On 12 November 2012, he was awarded an Edison Volta Prize. *On 5 December 2013, he was awarded the

UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal The UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal was first minted in 1985 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr. It is awarded by UNESCO to recognise those who have made outstanding contributions to physics throu ...

. *In May 2015, he was awarded a Grand Cross 1st class of the

German Order of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

. *In September 2015, Heuer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

. *On 22 November 2016, Heuer was appointed a Knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

References

External links

Scientific publications of Rolf-Dieter Heuer
on

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heuer, Rolf-Dieter 1948 births People associated with CERN 20th-century German physicists Living people Particle physicists UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal recipients Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Knights of the Legion of Honour 21st-century German physicists Presidents of the German Physical Society Academic staff of the University of Hamburg

Biography

Awards

References

Further reading

External links