DESY is led by a board of directors chaired by Prof. Dr. Helmut Dosch, which coordinates the interactions among the four physics divisions: Particle Physics (FH), Accelerator Physics (M), Photon Science (FS) and Astroparticle (here the details and a schema here).

The FH (Forschung Hochenergiephysik -Research for High Energy Physics) department collects the groups targeting Particle Physics and is led by Prof. Dr. Beate Heinemann. It comprises several groups summarised here.