On 1 NovemberHelmut Schober takes office as Director General for ESS. He joins ESS at an important time in the project, where beam commissioning in the first part of the accelerator recently started, civil construction will be concluded in the second half of December, and installation work will be further intensified.
After two decades at the world-leading neutron source ILL in Grenoble, France, where he has been the Director since 2016, and with a number of other leading roles in European science, Schober is a prominent figure within the European research community. Moreover, as a former member of the ESS Scientific Advisory Committee, he is very familiar with the ESS project.
ESS warmly welcomes Helmut to the organisation. He takes office as Director General at an important time for ESS, with an ongoing re-baselining process in order to establish an updated plan for the completion of the facility in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and its significant consequences for ESS and its in-kind partners.
The ESS Council is also looking forward to working with Schober. “The entire ESS Council is very pleased that Helmut Schober has accepted to take up the duty as ESS Director General, and we wish him every success in his new role,” says Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph, Chair of the ESS Council.
“Both the ESS Council Chair and I look forward to working intensively with Schober, in these challenging times and beyond,” continues Curt Clausen, Vice Chair of the ESS Council.
As Helmut takes office, ESS Acting Director General Kevin Jones returns to his role as ESS Technical Director.