Helmut Schober Appointed New Director General of European Spallation Source

Professor Helmut Schober has been appointed the next Director General of the European Spallation Source (ESS) by the ESS Council, and will officially join the organization on November 1st. Schober currently serves as Director of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in France.

"I am happy that the ESS Council has appointed Professor Helmut Schober as the next Director General of ESS," said Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph, Chair of the ESS Council. "Helmut Schober has a long-standing experience as a neutron scientist and a deep knowledge in leading a European scientific facility. He will lead ESS in the transition from a construction project into an international research facility."

Schober holds a PhD in Physics and has previously worked as a researcher at the University of Mainz and at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany. He was also the founding Chair of the League of advanced European Neutron Sources (LENS) and, since 2020, Chair of the European International Research Organisations forum (EIROforum).

Schober expressed his honor at the appointment, stating that ESS is a "necessary building block for preserving Europe’s long-standing, global leadership in neutron science." The facility is currently transitioning from the construction phase to intensified installation and commissioning of equipment.