Thoennessen graduated from the University of Cologne in Germany before receiving his doctorate in experimental nuclear physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The highlight of his career is having the opportunity to learn new things every day, Thoennessen said.

“I have the chance to observe something that nobody has ever seen,” Thoennessen said. “Discovering something for the first time is what I like most.”

Thoennessen spends most of his time in MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory where he works as a professor and associate director of nuclear science.

“Just the other day, I spent the whole night here,” Thoennessen said. “I started at midnight and went home at 5 a.m.”

Thoennessen collaborated with other physicists in publishing dozens of scientific journals and spoke at conferences and universities across the nation, according to the NSCL Web site.

But though Thoennessen works hard, he said he knows how to have a good time with his students.

“If you are going to be in the lab at three in the morning, you better be able to laugh and have fun,” he said.