CERN honours Schopper at 85
On 15 September CERN hosted a symposium to mark the 85th birthday of Herwig Schopper, who was director-general in the years 1981–1988. During the event colleagues recalled his long scientific career in nuclear and particle physics and looked back at other areas of science to which he has made decisive contributions and in which he continues to retain an ardent interest.
Schopper's role in world science is considerable and diverse: in frontier fields such as nuclear and particle physics as well as other areas of advanced scientific research; in the promotion of international scientific co-operation; and in the advancement of peace through scientific endeavour, to name just a few examples. He served as director of DESY, director-general of CERN and president of the SESAME Council. His leadership resulted in remarkable contributions towards the many achievements of these laboratories, most notably characterized by the successful construction of the Large Electron–Positron (LEP) collider at CERN (When LEP, CERN's first big collider, saw beam).
Samuel Ting, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics and spokesperson of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collaboration, opened the symposium with an overview of Schopper's contributions to nuclear and particle physics. He reminded the audience of experiments from the 1950s through to the 1970s, including important contributions to the study of the structure of the proton and neutron through electron-scattering experiments. Schopper's part in the development of innovative detector technologies, which continue to remain in use in high-energy physics experiments, includes the development of the hadron-calorimetry technique to measure energy in neutron–proton and neutron–nuclei scattering experiments. Ting also recalled Schopper's significant role in the approval and construction of LEP – two major milestones in the history of CERN – as well as his important role on the AMS experiment, serving as senior adviser and proposing new detector techniques.
Cecilia Jarlskog of Lund University took a trip back in time to recall the pioneering work in the 1950s on parity violation. Schopper's contributions were highlighted by his work on the circular polarization of gamma rays as further evidence of parity violation. He continued these studies unabatedly, working on circular polarization of external and internal bremsstrahlung as well as on electron and positron emitters throughout the 1960s.
Moving beyond CERN, Albrecht Wagner, former director of DESY, recalled Schopper's time at DESY in the 1970s and also looked to the future. Schopper oversaw the construction of the electron–positron collider PETRA in the period 1976–1978. PETRA turned DESY into a truly international high-energy physics laboratory and experiments there went on to do seminal work in particle physics with the discovery and study of the gluon. Schopper's initiative also led to the construction of the ARGUS experiment at DORIS. By establishing HASYLAB at DORIS, DESY branched out into synchrotron science to satisfy the needs of its growing user community. With such strong foundations, DESY now has highly attractive opportunities for future research in photon science, particle physics and astrophysics.
Mariano Gago, minister for science, technology and higher education of Portugal (and himself a particle physicist), and Juan Antonio Rubio, director-general of CIEMAT in Spain, evoked memories of Schopper's essential part in the development of particle physics on the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere in Europe. Schopper's vision paved the way for Portugal to become CERN's fourteenth member state in 1986. His pivotal role in Spain's re-accession to CERN in 1983 is also much acknowledged. Thanks to CERN in general, and Schopper in particular, both Portugal and Spain now have a highly developed scientific and technical level in particle physics and contribute significantly to CERN's physics programmes. Their involvement with CERN and particle physics has also benefited these countries in areas that reach beyond particle physics.
Costas Papanicolas of the Cyprus Institute and Khalid Toukan of SESAME both spoke about an issue that Schopper has dedicated himself to in recent years – the establishment of research centres in the eastern-Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Schopper has left his signature on the Cyprus Institute – whose activities include research on the environment, energy and water – by being one of the organization's founding fathers, and he continues to show much interest in the advancement of science in Cyprus. He is also a committed leader and supporter of the international SESAME centre, which will produce X-rays that can be used in a range of experiments from condensed matter to biology; he was president of the Council of SESAME from 1999 to 2008. The success of the SESAME project would not have been possible without his dedication to it. His efforts have been a guiding force in bringing nations together through science in these regions of the world.
The symposium was also dedicated to Schopper's wife Ingeborg, who passed away on 14 September. CERN's director-general, Rolf Heuer, led the audience in a moment of silence in her honour.
• The presentations and a recording of the symposium are available at http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=66622.