Dr. Ulrich Breuer
2020-2023
From March 2020 until June 2023 Ulrich Breuer was Administrative Managing Director of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH and the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe GmbH (FAIR GmbH). Before, he worked at various research institutions as administrative director and science manager. Ulrich Breuer studied physics and received his doctorate at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen. His professional career began in 1991 at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. There he first worked as assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Directors and then in leading positions for many years. In 2005, he changed to the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin as Administrative Director, where he accompanied the merger with the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung (BESSY) and the foundation of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. He operated as its Administrative Director from 2009 to 2011. From 2012 to 2017, he worked as Vice President Economics and Finance of the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). Subsequently he held the position of the Administrative Director at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Until the end of June 2020, Ulrich Breuer will continue in his current position at the HZDR in addition to his functions at GSI and FAIR.
Ursula Weyrich
2014-2019
From November 2014 until December 2019 Ursula Weyrich was Administrative Managing Director of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH (GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research) and the Facility of Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe GmbH (FAIR GmbH). She studied administrative and industrial management and law in Wiesbaden, Mainz and Clermont-Ferrand, completing her legal training in 1998 with the bar examination. She initially worked as a lawyer, focusing on labor, corporate and tax law, before moving to Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) as policy officer. There she was responsible, among other things, for the merger of the GMD Research Center Information Technology with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. After a period as the personal assistant to the permanent secretary at the BMBF, in 2006 she became the BMBF head of division, and thus responsible for the Helmholtz Centres in Jülich and Karlsruhe, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and for the buildup of the fusionexperiment W7-X in Greifswald. Part of her responsibilities also included accompanying the merger of the University of Karlsruhe with the Research Center Karlsruhe to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). End of 2008, Ursula Weyrich took over as an administrative founding board member to build a new research center, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases within the Helmholtz Association (DZNE) in Bonn.
Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Henschel
2014 (ad interim)
From May to November 2014 Jürgen Henschel was Administrative Director of GSI ad interim. He studied mechanical engineering at Technische Universität Braunschweig and Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (today Technische Universität Darmstadt). After finishing his studies, he worked at Universität Clausthal where he completed his PhD in 1999. His transition to industry lead him through different positions, areas of business and locations amongst others in the USA and Switzerland. At Tyco Electronics he advanced from project leader to CEO of different divisions. In a final step, as chief of development and director of project management, he was responsible for the expense optimization of the core products in the Datacom division.
From 2013 to 2015 he was head of the department "Controlling & Organisation" at GSI. Since April 2015 he is head of the FAIR project management at GSI. (Status 2015)
Peter Hassenbach
2011-2014
From 2011 to 2014 Peter Hassenbach was Administrative Director of GSI.
Born in 1964, he studied economics in Mainz and Bonn. Until 1999 he worked post-graduate as advisor of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Bonn. Subsequently he worked, amongst other companies, for Daimler Chrysler AG, Stuttgart, in the department of traffic telematics. In 2003 he returned to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin, where he became head of the division "Nutrition and Renewable Resources" in 2009. From 2010 he was head of the division "Healthcare Management". (Status 2014)
Christiane Neumann
2008-2010
From 2008 to 2010 Christiane Neumann was Administrative Director of GSI. Born in 1953, she studied law in Frankfurt and Berlin. After some years as independent lawyer she worked as Advisor with the Berlin Senate Department for Youth and Family. In 1992 she took over as Administrative Director of the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), a Member of the Leibniz Association. From 1999 to 2003 she served there as Administrative Vice President for two terms of office. Since 2005 she helped to set up a privately founded university for politics as its director, the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Christiane Neumann is a Member of the German Society of Educational Administration. (Status 2010)
