Herwig Schopper

Herwig Schopper
Schopper in 2013
Born(1924-02-28)28 February 1924
Died19 August 2025(2025-08-19) (aged 101)
Hamburg, Germany
Alma materUniversity of Hamburg
Known for
  • First polarised proton beam
  • Circular polarisation of gamma-rays following beta decay
  • Hadron calorimeter
  • Superconducting cavities
  • High energy e-p scattering
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor

Herwig Franz Schopper (28 February 1924 – 19 August 2025) was a German experimental physicist. He researched and taught at the University of Erlangen, the University of Mainz from 1958, the University of Karlsruhe from 1961, and the University of Hamburg from 1973. The same year, he became chairman of the directorate of the German DESY research centre. He was the director general of CERN for European research from 1981 to 1988. After retiring in Hamburg in 1989, he held functions such as president of the German Physical Society and president of the European Physical Society. He was a founding father of SESAME, an international laboratory in the Middle East, and of the Cyprus Institute.