Prof. Dr. Jorgen D’Hondt – director Nikhef (2024 – now)
After receiving his PhD from the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Belgium) with experimental research in particle physics at the LEP accelerator at CERN, Jorgen D’Hondt initiated research with proton collisions at the LHC accelerator. Besides his contributions to the construction of the CMS detector, he studied the properties of the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle, and searched for new physics phenomena related to these top quarks as well as to the Higgs boson.
Shortly after the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, he was elected chairman of the CMS Collaboration Board (2014-2017) and later as chairman of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA, 2018-2020) with which he took an important role in developing the European strategy for particle physics. Afterwards, he became spokesperson for future electron-proton collision experiments at CERN and coordinator of Energy Recovery Linac research in the context of the European Accelerator R&D Roadmap. Jorgen D’Hondt chaired several international advisory and evaluation committees.
Before his tenure as Nikhef director, Jorgen D’Hondt was a professor at the VUB where he was also VUB director of the Inter-university Institute for High Energies (IIHE) and coordinator of the experimental and theoretical high energy physics research group with activities in both astroparticle physics, particle physics and the physics of gravitational waves. In Belgium, he was the first president of the Young Academy (2013-2015).
Science communication is in Jorgen D’Hondt’s DNA, including inspiring lectures, a children’s book and a project to take young people into the wonderful world of quantum physics.
For his contributions, Jorgen D’Hondt has received awards from the World Economic Forum, the National Academy of Belgium and the VUB.
Since November 2024, Jorgen D’Hondt has been the director of Nikhef.