Perfil

Herwig Franz Schopper is a distinguished German experimental physicist renowned for his contributions to nuclear and particle physics, accelerator technology, and science diplomacy.

He earned his physics diploma in 1949 and doctorate in 1951 from the University of Hamburg. His early research included positions at Privatdozent Erlangen (1957), Technical University, Stockholm with Lise Meitner (1950-51), Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge with Otto Robert Frisch (1956-57), Cornell University, Ithaca with R.R.Wilson (1960-61). Notably, in 1957, he conducted experiments demonstrating parity violation in beta decay, confirming the opposite helicities of neutrinos and antineutrinos.

Schopper held professorships at the University of Mainz (1958–61), University of Karlsruhe (1961–73), and University of Hamburg (from 1973). At Karlsruhe, he directed the Institute for Experimental Nuclear Physics and pioneered the development of superconducting cavities and hadron calorimeters. From 1973 to 1980, he served as chairman of the directorate at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron), overseeing the construction of the PETRA collider, which led to the discovery of the gluon. As Director-General of CERN (1981–1988), he unified its two laboratories and spearheaded the construction of the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP), facilitating precision tests of the Standard Model.

Schopper has been instrumental in promoting international scientific collaboration. He was a founding figure of SESAME laboratory in Jordan, a synchrotron light source in the Middle East, serving as its council president (2004–2008). He also contributed to the establishment of the South East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST).

He has received numerous honors, including the Carus Medal (1957), Great Cross of Merit of Germany (1989), UNESCO Albert Einstein Gold Medal (2004), the AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy (2019), and the Honorary Medal of Portuguese Minister for Higher Education and Research (2009). Schopper is a member of several prestigious academies, including the Leopoldina and Academia Europaea. Doctor Honoris Causa: Universities of Erlangen, Moscow, Geneva, London, and of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna (1999) and Institute for High Energy Physics Protvino, Russia.

He has written more than 200 scientific papers and authored multiple books, such as Weak Interactions and Nuclear Beta Decay (1966) and LEP – The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980–2000 (2009).