Sigfried Bethke (born April 15, 1954 in

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...

) is a German physicist and science manager.

Life

Scientific career

Siegfried Bethke studied at

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, where he received his doctorate in 1983 and his habilitation in 1987. In 1987/88 he spent a research stay at the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

as a

Feodor Lynen Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (; 6 April 19116 August 1979) was a German biochemist. In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Konrad Bloch for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and ...

fellow of the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...

. Subsequently, he did research at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, as a

Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series ...

Fellow of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

. In 1993 he was appointed professor of experimental physics at the

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

, where he held a chair at the III Physics Institute until 1999. In 1999 he became a "Scientific Member" of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...

and Director at the

Max Planck Institute for Physics The Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) is a physics institute in Munich, Germany that specializes in high energy physics and astroparticle physics. It is part of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institu ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where he was Managing Director from 2000 to 2005. In 2000, he was appointed honorary professor at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

. Since January 2013, he has been Managing Director of th
Max Planck Semiconductor Laboratory
in Munich-Neuperlach.

Research activities

Bethke's research focuses on the investigation of high-energy particle collisions at

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

s and the development of

particle detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuc ...

s to detect these collisions. He is responsible for the activities of the MPI for Physics within the

ATLAS experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage ...

at the

LHC The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundre ...

of CERN. He is the Director responsible for the activities of the

within the

ATLAS collaboration ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

at CERN's

. Bethke and his research groups were instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs boson particle in 2012. Bethke also contributes to the experimental verification of

quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...

Awards and memberships

Bethke was awarded the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

of the German Research Foundation in 1995. Since 1999, he has been co-organizer of the annual "School for High Energy Physics" at the

Maria Laach Abbey Maria Laach Abbey (in German: ''Abtei Maria Laach'', in Latin: ''Abbatia Maria Lacensis'' or ''Abbatia Maria ad Lacum'') is a Benedictine abbey situated on the southwestern shore of the Laacher See (Lake Laach), near Andernach, in the Eifel re ...

. From 1995 to 2002, he was a member of the expert committee for

High Energy Physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and b ...

of the German

Federal Ministry of Education and Research The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (german: link=no, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, ), abbreviated BMBF, is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry provi ...

. From 2000 to 2004, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the

DESY The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (English ''German Electron Synchrotron''), commonly referred to by the abbreviation DESY, is a national research center in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to investigate the structure of matt ...

in Hamburg, where he was chair from 2002 to 2004. From 2007 to 2012, he was editor-in-chief of the

European Physical Journal C The ''European Physical Journal C'' (''EPJ C'') is a biweekly peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal covering theoretical and experimental physics. It is part of the SCOAP3 initiative. See also * ''European Physical Journal The ''Europe ...

. In 2008, he was appointed chair of the scientific advisory board of the Institute for High Energy Physic
HEPHY
in Vienna, which he held until 2014. From 2009 to 2020, he was the German scientific representative to the

Council. From 2012 to 2020, he represented Germany in the European Strategy Group of this committee. From 2013 to 2017, he was a member of the Management Board of the

German Physical Society The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. The DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 60,547, as of 2019, making it the largest physics society in the world. It holds an annual conference () and multiple ...

(DPG). In 2016 and 2017, he performed the same role in the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

. Since 2018, he has been a member of the PRISMA Forum, an advisory committee of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

References

External links

s bethke on the publication server Inspire HEP

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bethke at the Max Planck Institute for Physics

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bethke at the Max Planck Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethke, Sigfried Max Planck Institute directors People associated with CERN Living people 20th-century German physicists Heidelberg University alumni 1954 births 21st-century German physicists