Dr. Pierre Schnizer has studied accelerator physics at the University of Graz and at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He has been research associate at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, analyzing and evaluating accelerator magnets for FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research). He has been deputy director in the CERN-GSI collaboration for testing superconducting magnets. Today, he is technical project director at the Helmholtz Center for Energy and Materials in Berlin, responsible for BESSY VSR (variable pulse-length storage ring).