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Farewell and welcome ceremonyDESY Board of Directors: Chair Handover Ceremony
2 April 2025, by Newsroom editorial office
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt
Numerous guests attended the chair handover from Prof. Helmut Dosch (second from the right) to Prof. Beate Heinemann (second from the left), among others, University President Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren (on the left) and Hamburg’s science senator Katharina Fegebank (fourth from the right).
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt
After 16 years in office, Prof. Dosch bid farewell as chair of the DESY board of directors.
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt
President Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren warmly thanked Dosch for the trusted collaboration with the University of Hamburg, one of DESY’s closest partners.
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt
In the ceremony, Prof. Heinemann played a different kind of conductor guiding the audience through her goals for the research center.
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt
At the end, a band performed to welcome the new DESY chair.
On 31 March 2025, after 16 years as chair of the board of directors at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Prof. Dr. Helmut Dosch was given an official farewell. At Science City Bahrenfeld, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Beate Heinemann was welcomed as new chair of the DESY board of directors. She will take up office on 1 April.
The guests, including University President Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren and Hamburg’s science senator Katharina Fegebank, caught the festive mood and got to enjoy a colorful morning. The main focus was on honoring Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Dosch’s work as chair for over a decade. Dosch’s supporters and companions reminisced and celebrated major DESY milestones achieved under his aegis.
In his farewell speech, Dosch also looked back on past achievements, as he passed the baton to his successor Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Beate Heinemann: “I am delighted to hand over the board of directors chairship to Beate Heineman. I have come to know her as an inspiring expert and trusted collaborator with valuable experience when she was DESY director for the particle physics area. I wish her great success and the best of luck in heading the research center.
A Hamburg native and first woman chair
Heinemann is the first woman at the top of the DESY board of directors and was given the red-carpet treatment accompanied by live music. On taking office, she announced: “In collaboration with all DESY employees, I aim to further expand the scientific and innovative performance of the center and make a significant contribution to academia and society in collaboration.”
The particle physicist and Hamburg native studied at the University of Hamburg where she also earned her doctorate. In 2006, Heinemann joined the University of California at Berkeley, USA, as professor of experimental physics and conducted research at the multidisciplinary Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2016, she returned to Germany and became Lead Scientist at DESY. Since February 2022, Heinemann has been director of particle physics at DESY. She has been a professor of experimental particle physics at the University of Hamburg in 2023.
