Author: Rüdiger Voss
Herwig Schopper, EPS President from 1995 to 1997, celebrated his 100th birthday on 28 February
Herwig
Schopper was born in Lanškroun (Landskron), in a German-speaking region
of what is now the Czech Republic. Shortly after the end of World War
II, he started studying physics at the University of Hamburg where he
received his PhD in 1951. He soon embarked on a prestigious academic
career which took him to professorships in Mainz, Karlsruhe, and later
in Hamburg, making landmark contributions to experimental nuclear
physics, particle physics, and accelerator technology. During these years, he already demonstrated his talents as a science administrator: in
1973, he was appointed chairman of the DESY board of directors; in 1981
he began an eight-years term as Director-General of CERN, notably
overseeing the construction of the large electron-positron collider LEP
in the same 27 km tunnel which today houses the Large Hadron Collider.
Following
his term of office at CERN, Herwig started a new career as science
diplomat that keeps him active to this day. From 1992-94, he served
as president of the German Physical Society, and from 1995-97 he was
president of the EPS. In subsequent years, he held several important
positions at UNESCO, including chairing the advisory committee for the
International Basic Science Programme (2003-2009). Guided by his strong
personal vision of “science for peace”, he embarked on his most
ambitious science diplomacy project: the SESAME light source in the
middle east which was inaugurated in Jordan in 2017.
On 1 March,
Herwig's unique personality and countless achievements were celebrated
at CERN with a festive symposium, “A century in physics”, by a
prestigious line-up of speakers who had witnessed different stages of
his life and career, including Nobel Prize Winner Samuel Ting and Herwig's children Doris and Andreas. In a short message, EPS President-elect
Mairi Sakellariadou recalled Herwig Schopper’s merits as the president
who steered our society with his characteristic quiet and unassuming,
but highly effective approach to management through the tumultuous
period when the seat and the secretariat were moved from Geneva to
Mulhouse, saving the EPS from a severe political and financial crisis.
The EPS is immensely grateful to its former president for his leadership
and for his lifelong devotion to science and peace: congratulations
Herwig on your uncountable achievements, and good luck and good health
for many more years to come!
A more comprehensive appraisal of Herwig Schopper’s life and work will appear in a forthcoming issue of Europhysics News (55/2).
Three
generations of CERN Directors-General: Herwig Schopper and Fabiola
Gianotti cutting the birthday cake, critically watched by Rolf Heuer - image credit: Rüdiger Voss
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