Dr. Roland Schenkel studied physics at the Technical University in Karlsruhe. After his post-doctorate at the Centre d’Etude Nucléaires (CEA) in Grenoble in 1977, he was employed at a Company for Reprocessing of Nuclear Fuel in Karlsruhe. From 1979 to 1994 he worked at the Euratom Safeguards Office of the European Commission in Luxembourg. Continuing in the European Commission, in 1994 he joined the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Karlsruhe. In 2000 he became Director of the ITU. In June 2002 he moved to Brussels as Deputy Director General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Since November 2005 he is Director General of the JRC. He was awarded a Doctor honoris causa by the Russian Academy of Science in 2002.