By Florence Thompson (CERN)
As of today, Wednesday 1st October 2025, Markus Zerlauth is the new HL-LHC Project Leader, taking over from Oliver Brüning. Markus brings with him his thirteen years in the project, initially working alongside Oliver for the Parameter and Layout Committee and the Technical Coordination Committee, before joining the HL project office team in 2020 as the HL-LHC Deputy Project Leader.
This follows the appointment of Oliver Brüning as Director of the Accelerators and Technology Sector for 2026-2030, after five years as HL-LHC Project Leader.
‘The project is now in full swing of production for all series components and is shifting gear to get ready for the actual installation work,’ says Oliver. ‘This is an excellent moment to pass on the project leadership to Markus to lead the project through this next crucial phase of the project.’
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Oliver warmly for his insightful leadership of the project and wish him all the best and every success in his new role.
‘The next five years will be a challenging, yet very rewarding, period for the entire project, seeing the design and production efforts of more than 15 years across CERN and all its collaborators and industrial partners taking shape in the LHC tunnel and underground areas,’ says Markus. ‘I am very much looking forward to continuing the excellent work and collaboration with all of the teams to jointly achieve our important objective to successfully re-start the LHC in its High-Luminosity configuration by June 2030!’
Figure 2. Oliver Brüning announcing the change of leadership at the start of this week at the 15th HL-LHC Collaboration Meeting. Florence Thompson / CERN