Prof. Dr. Marek Schönherr – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Dr. Marek Schönherr

Durham University
Theoretical Particle Physics, Particle Physics Phenomenology

Senior Fellow
Freiburg Research Collaboration Programme (FRESCO)

June – July 2025, October – November 2025

Website

E-Mail: marek.schoenherr@durham.ac.uk

Last Update: 31.08.2025

Curriculum Vitae

Marek Schönherr is working to understand the properties and interactions of matter and the smallest scales or, equivalently, the highest energies. For this, he endeavours to calculate precise predictions of our best tested theory to date, the Standard Model of Particle Physics, such that it can be tested against the newest data taken at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research (CERN). Marek pursued his undergraduate studies at TU Dresden, Germany, culminating in his Diploma Thesis on soft-photon resummation in 2007. Continuing this work in his doctoral studies, he formulated the first automated methods combining fixed-order calculations with resummed results in event generators, and was awarded his PhD in 2012. During stays as post-doctoral researcher at Durham University, United Kingdom, and the University of Zürich, Switzerland, he broadened his research to encompass the Electroweak Theory as well. After a fellowship at CERN in 2017, he was awarded a University Research Fellowship by the Royal Society and joined Durham University as an Assistant Professor in 2019. Today, as full Professor of Physics, he continues to work to provide precision predictions for the LHC and planned and proposed future colliders to be able to make full use of the wealth of data that is going to be available.

Selected Publications

Sherpa collab., “Event generation with Sherpa 3”, JHEP 12 (2024) 156 [arXiv:2410.22148]
Lois Flower, Marek Schönherr, “Photon splitting corrections to soft-photon resummation”, JHEP 03 (2023) 238 [arXiv:2210.07007]
Wan-Li Ju, Marek Schönherr, “The qT and ∆ϕ spectra in W and Z production at the LHC at N3LL′+N2LO”, JHEP 10 (2021) 088 [arXiv:2106.11260]
Marek Schönherr, “An automated subtraction of NLO EW infrared divergences”, Eur.Phys.J.C 78 (2018) 2, 119 [arXiv:712.07975]
Stefan Höche, Frank Krauss, Marek Schönherr, Frank Siegert, “QCD matrix elements + parton showers: The NLO case”, JHEP 04 (2013) 027 [arxiv:1207.5030]

FRIAS Project

Electroweak precision for the Large Hadron Collider

Roughly a decade after the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), present-day particle physics research is characterized by very good agreement of theory predictions with experimental data from the LHC and previous colliders on the one hand and by the certainty that the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) cannot be the ultimate theory of fundamental subatomic physics on the other. Missing pieces in the big puzzle, for instance, concern the nature of “Dark Matter” observed in the Universe, the mysterious pattern of fundamental matter particles, the unification of all forces at smallest distances, and the explanation of the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. At the high-energy frontier with particle colliders, in particular at the LHC, new discoveries can only be made via highest possible precision in theory predictions, simulations of particles processes, and experimental analyses.
In this project, Prof. Schönherr will work with both the Experimental and Theoretical High-Energy Physics groups of Profs. Jacobs and Schumacher, and Dittmaier and Rhezak, resperctively. Together with the theory groups, the construction of an electroweak parton shower to implement indispensible high-order corrections is planned. Simultaneously, he will discuss and guide the use of his existing software tools by the experimental collaborations for their current and future data analyses.