Rolf-Dieter Heuer is a distinguished German particle physicist whose leadership has profoundly shaped international high-energy physics research for over four decades. Born in 1948 in Boll/Goeppingen, Germany, he studied physics at the University of Stuttgart where he graduated in 1974 before obtaining his PhD at the University of Heidelberg in 1977 under Professor Joachim Heintze. His early career included significant research at the University of Heidelberg working on the JADE experiment at the PETRA storage ring at DESY in Hamburg from 1977 to 1983. He then joined CERN in 1984, where he spent fifteen years working on the OPAL experiment at the Large Electron-Positron Collider, ultimately serving as the collaboration's spokesperson from 1994 to 1998 and overseeing critical data analysis during LEP1 and the energy upgrade to LEP2.
Professor Heuer has made substantial contributions to experimental particle physics through his expertise in the design, construction, and operation of sophisticated detector systems for electron-positron colliders. His leadership in coordinating the OPAL experiment's tracking system was instrumental in precision measurements that significantly advanced our understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics. As Research Director for particle and astroparticle physics at DESY from 2004, he strategically maintained Germany's position at the forefront of particle physics by strengthening university collaborations and focusing national research efforts on the Large Hadron Collider program. His extensive experience in managing large international scientific collaborations and complex experimental projects established him as the ideal leader to guide CERN through the critical early operational phase of the Large Hadron Collider.
As Director General of CERN from 2009 to 2015, Professor Heuer presided over the historic discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, a landmark achievement that confirmed the final missing piece of the Standard Model and represented the culmination of decades of international scientific collaboration. Following his tenure at CERN, he served as President of the German Physical Society from 2016 to 2018 and has held influential leadership positions including President of the Council of SESAME and Chair of the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors. His distinguished career has been recognized with numerous prestigious honors including Rolf-Dieter Heuer, as CERN Director-General, accepted the UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal in 2013 on behalf of CERN; the award was made to the institution, not to Heuer personally. and the Grand Cross 1st class of the German Order of Merit, while his scholarly contributions encompass over 500 scientific publications that continue to influence the field of particle physics worldwide.
