Herwig Schopper

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Herwig Franz Schopper

Herwig Franz Schopper (born February 28, 1924 in Landskron , Czechoslovakia ) is a German physicist and former director of CERN and DESY .

life and work

Schopper obtained his physics diploma in 1949 at the University of Hamburg , where he received his doctorate in 1951. As a post-doc he did research in Stockholm with Lise Meitner and at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge with Otto Robert Frisch . There he carried out one of the experiments in 1957 that proved the violation of mirror symmetry (parity) . In 1954 he completed his habilitation on optical subjects at the University of Erlangen . In the 1950s, together with Günter Clausnitzer and Rudolf Fleischmann, he developed the first source for polarized protons, which was later installed at the cyclotron in Karlsruhe. From 1958 to 1961 he was director of the Institute for Nuclear Physics at the University of Mainz (and associate professor in Mainz). 1960/61 he was at Cornell University with Robert R. Wilson .

From 1961 to 1973 he was director of the institutes for experimental nuclear physics at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and full professor (from 1960) at the TH Karlsruhe.

With a group he carried out one of the first experiments at the German Electron Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg. In Karlsruhe, a group he initiated was the first in Europe to investigate superconducting cavity resonators , which led to a collaboration with CERN . In Karlsruhe he was also involved in various accelerator plans, which were not implemented (Electron Ring Accelerator ERA, as well as a 30 GeV proton synchrotron).

General Director of CERN from 1981 to 1988.

From 1966 to 1967 he worked as a visiting professor at CERN, where the so-called 'hadron calorimeter' was invented to detect neutrons, then from 1970 to 1973 as head of the department for nuclear physics and on the board of directors as the director responsible for coordinating the experiments, chairman of the ISR Committees ( Intersecting Storage Rings ) at CERN from 1973 to 1976, member of the Scientific Policy Committee and finally as General Director from 1981 to 1988. During this time, the LEP was approved and built at CERN .

From 1973 to 1980 he was chairman of the board of directors of the German electron synchrotron. During this time the PETRA ring was built there. From 1973 he was also a professor at the University of Hamburg .

From 1999 Schopper campaigned for the establishment of the International Center for Synchrotron Radiation for Experimental Applications in the Middle East ( SESAME ) in Jordan under the umbrella of UNESCO based on the model of CERN and, at Sergio Fubini's suggestion, was first on the planning committee and then on the Preliminary advice of the project. The aim is both to promote science in the Middle East and to contribute to peacemaking. Member countries became Egypt, Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey and Cyprus. From 2004 to 2008 Schopper was President of the SESAME Council.

From 1993 to 2002 he was on the council of the United Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna .

1977 to 1979 he was chairman of the working group of large research institutions (today Helmholtz Association ). From 1992 to 1994 he was President of the German Physical Society and from 1994 to 1996 of the European Physical Society . He was a member of various advisory committees of the Max Planck Society , the German Research Foundation , the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, the European Union and UNESCO.

Awards

Fonts

  • Scientific publications . More than 200 original publications in optics, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics and accelerator technology. Some of the most important works are:
    • R. Fleischmann, H. Schopper: The determination of the optical constants and the layer thickness of absorbing layers with the help of the measurement of the absolute phase change . In: Z.Physik , 129,285 (1951) (first method for measuring the absolute phase when the light is reflected on thin metal layers)
    • H. Schopper: To the interpretation of the optical constants of the alkali metals . In: Z.Physik , 135, 163 (1953) (The anomalous optical behavior of 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 discussed by Lee and Yang, but which was considered impracticable. For the first time in the same experiment it was shown that the helicities of neutrino and antineutrino are opposite.)
    • G. Clausnitzer, R. Fleischmann, H. Schopper: Generation of a hydrogen atom beam with rectified nuclear spins . In: Z.Physik , 144, 336 (1956)
    • H. Schopper, S. Galster: The circular polarization of internal and external bremsstrahl . In: Nucl.Phys. , 6, 125 (1958) (first measurement of the circular polarization of the internal bremsstrahlung of beta decay)
    • J. Halbritter, R. Hietschold, P. Kneisel, H. Schopper: Coupling losses and the measurement of Q-values ​​of superconducting cavities . In: KFK-report , Karlsruhe 3 / 86-6 (1968) (early publication on the study of superconducting cavities for the acceleration of particles)
    • RM Littauer, H. Schopper, RR Wilson: Formfactors of the proton and neutron . In: Phys.Rev.Lett. , 6, 286 (1961), (measurement of the nuclear form factors, correction of the first measurements by R. Hofstadter)
    • Behrend et al .: Elastic electron-proton scattering at momentum transfers up to 110 fermi-2 . In: Nuov.Cim. , 48,140 (1967)
    • J.Engler, W. Flauger, B. Gibbard, F. Mönnig, K. Runge, Herwig Schopper: A total absorption spectrometer for energy measurements of high-energy particles . In: Nucl.Instr.Meth. , 106, 189 (1973) (First use and optimization of a 'Hadron Calorimeter')
    • V. Boehmer et al .: Neutron-proton elastic scattering from 10 to 70 GeV / c . In: Nucl.Phys. , B91, 266 (1975) and other publications (neutron-proton scattering at high energies, at the ISR at CERN and at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Russia)
    • L3 Collaboration, Upsilon Production in Z Decays . In: Phys.Lett. B , 413, 167 (1997) and Heavy Quarkonium Production in Z Decays . In: Phys.Lett.B , in print (Schopper was the main author of these publications)
  • Books
    • H. Schopper: Weak Interactions and Nuclear Beta Decay . North-Holland Publishing, 1966
    • H.Schopper: Matter and Antimatter . Piper Verlag, 1989
    • H. Schopper: LEP The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980-2000 . Springer Verlag, 2009
  • Editing

literature

  • Andrew Sessler, Edmund Wilson: Engines of Discovery . World Scientific, 2007

Web links

Commons : Herwig Schopper  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Schopper's first encounter with Wilson was on a Sunday while visiting the abandoned laboratory. He was talking to the man who was sweeping the hallway and who he first thought was the caretaker. Wilson enlightened him of a similar encounter he had with Luis Walter Alvarez in Berkeley . Sessler, Wilson Engines of Discovery , 2007, p. 92
  2. ↑ 2004: Foundation of a synchrotron light source in the Middle East. In: sesame.org.jo. Retrieved February 17, 2020 .
  3. ↑ PRESIDENTS / VICE-PRESIDENTS OF COUNCIL. In: sesame.org.jo. Retrieved February 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Herwig Schopper (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 22, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Schopper, Herwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schopper, Herwig F .; Schopper, Herwig Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Landskron