New Member of the DESY Directorate in charge of Administration

Christian Scherf is the name of Helmut Krech's successor in the DESY Directorate. The 38-year-old lawyer will assume his new office on June 1, 2002. Since the beginning of April, Helmut Krech is the Administration Director of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble.

DESY's new head of the administration has already gained experience in the management of a Helmholtz Research Center as the managing director of the GKSS Research Center Geesthacht. Christian Scherf, who was born in Bremen and studied law, always had a special interest in international contacts. After graduating from secondary school, he spent one year in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, doing voluntary service for the UNHCR. When he was a law student in Freiburg, he went to the University of Dijon in France for two semesters, to study international and european law. He passed both state exams and spent his trainee time in Frankfurt am Main. As a young lawyer he worked at an international lawyers office in Paris and in Brussels for the EU Secretary General in the office for prospective studies. Then he worked for the Hamburg state administration, and soon he was in charge of the national science and research financing department. Among other things he was responsible for the representation of Hamburg in the Scientific Council and he was a member of the DESY Administration Council. In September 2000, he went to GKSS as a managing director.

Christian Scherf is married to his wife Julia and he has three children with the age of 2 ½ years and 10 months (Carla, Helene and Jakob). The Scherf family lives in Hamburg Bergedorf.