Léon Charles Prudent Van Hove (10 February 1924 – 2 September 1990)[1] was a Belgian physicist and a Director General of CERN.

[4] Van Hove studied mathematics and physics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Later he worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and was a professor and Director of the Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

In the 1950s he laid the theoretical foundations for the analysis of inelastic neutron scattering in terms of the dynamic structure factor.

[5] In 1975 Prof. Van Hove was appointed CERN Director-General, with John Adams, responsible for the research activities of the Organization.