Jürgen Mlynek was born in 1951 in Gronau/ Leine, Germany. He studied physics at the Technical University of Hannover and the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1979 he gained his doctorate at the University of Hannover. After a period at the IBM Research Laboratory in the United States, Mlynek returned to Europe and began working at the ETH Zurich. In 1990 he became professor of physics at the University of Konstanz and continued his research in the fields of experimental quantum physics, atomic physics and surface physics. From 1996 to 2001 he served as Vice-President of the German Research Foundation (DFG). In 2005 he was elected President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, one of the major German research organizations.