• Voir en Knud Dahlerup-Petersen (1951 - 2025) 23 February, 2026 Knud Dahlerup-Petersen in 2002. • (Image: Felix Rodriguez Mateos/CERN) It was with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of our former colleague Knud Dahlerup-Petersen. • Knud Dahlerup-Petersen was a remarkable engineer, colleague and leader whose career at CERN spanned nearly four decades and whose influence on the design, protection and operation of superconducting magnet systems is deeply embedded in the success of the LHC. • His passing marks the loss of one of the world’s foremost experts in electrical engineering for accelerator applications, and of a person whose competence, integrity and human values left a lasting impression on all who worked with him. • Knud joined CERN in the late 1970s as a fellow in the ISR-BOM Group, where he worked on the evaluation of materials for cryogenic and radiation environments and contributed to the design and construction of specialised cryogenic test facilities. • From 1979 to 1984, as a CERN staff member and engineer-in-charge of the Intersecting Storage Rings, he played a central role in machine operation, specialising in beam optics, space-charge compensation, tune stabilisation and high-intensity beams.

Article Summaries:

  • Knud Dahlerup‑Petersen, a distinguished electrical engineer who spent nearly four decades at CERN, died in 2025. His career began in the late 1970s with the ISR‑BOM Group, where he evaluated cryogenic materials and helped design test facilities. He later led operations for the Intersecting Storage Rings, focusing on beam optics and high‑intensity beams. From the 1980s onward, Dahlerup‑Petersen played key roles in LEP power‑converter development and in the LHC’s high‑current converters, quench protection, and energy‑extraction systems. He retired in 2016 after directing the Circuit Protection Section, leaving a lasting legacy in superconducting magnet technology and mentoring future engineers.
  • It was with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of our former colleague Knud Dahlerup-Petersen. Knud Dahlerup-Petersen was a remarkable engineer, colleague and leader whose career at CERN spanned nearly four decades and whose influence on the design, protection and operation of superconducting magnet systems is deeply embedded in the success of the LHC. His passing marks the loss of one of the world’s foremost experts in electrical engineering for accelerator applications, and of a person whose competence, integrity and human values left a lasting impression on all who worked with him.

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