The tasks of the Scientific Council are described in the Rules of Association of DESY. Among other tasks the Scientific Council

• promotes the cooperation with universities and other research institutes,
• ensures an optimal use of DESY, together with the directorate and the Scientific Committee,
• cooperates in appointments for the directorate and of leading scientists and
• advises DESY on important scientific matters.

Usually the Scientific Council meets twice a year. It consists of 12 to 15 members, each member is elected for 3 years.

In earlier years members of the Scientific Council mainly came from German research institutes. It was therefore complemented by foreign members to the Extended Scientific Council taking into account DESY's international involvements. Because of uniting the foreign and German members in the Scientific Council the Extended Scientific Council was terminated in 2009.

Members of the SC and guests at their meeting in May 2017

Members and guests from left to right:

Sitting:
Olga Botner, Thomas Lohse, Georg Hofstaetter, Young-Kee Kim, Rafael Abela, Persis Drell, Linda Young, Steven Ritz

Standing:
Arik Willner, Keijo Hämäläinen, Matthias Kasemann, Michael Budke, Edgar Weckert, Reinhard Brinkmann, Lia Merminga, Leonid Rivkin, Christian Stegmann, John Womersley, Jean Daillant, Norbert Wermes, Christian David, Bridget Murphy, Ties Behnke, Christian Harringa, Hans Weise, Helmut Dosch, Axel Lindner, Petra Hendrikman Verstegen