Josef Hofmann (1940 – 2012)

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of our colleague Josef Hofmann. During his 35-year career at CERN, Josef made important contributions to many CERN projects. He passed away in December 2012.

 

In May 1964, Josef left Siemens in Germany to join CERN’s Nuclear Physics Apparatus (NPA) division, where he worked on electro-magnet models and developed equipment for high-power experiments.

According to his group leader, B. Kuiper, Josef made “an exceptionally effective contribution to the Serpukhov installation under very difficult circumstances”. This installation was a collaboration between CERN and the USSR in the early 1970s, which involved designing and building a fast ejection system for a proton synchrotron based in Serpukhov.

In 1972, Josef began work on the SPS magnet system. He moved on to work in the SPS North and then the SPS West experimental areas in 1981 and, finally, in the SL (SPS+LEP) department.

In the mid-1990s, Josef fought a long battle with cancer. He made a full recovery in 1996 and continued his professional career at CERN until retiring in 2000. Josef continued to be passionate about CERN, regularly meeting friends and ex-colleagues to keep up to date with CERN’s exciting developments.

Our thoughts go out to his wife Jennifer and his daughter Angelique, along with the rest of his family.

He will be greatly missed.

His friends and colleagues