Professor Helmes holds a degree in Mathematics (Dipl.-Math.) and chairs the Institute of Operations Research at Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin since 1995. Prior to this, he worked as a visiting Associate Professor (1985-86) and as Associate Professor (1986-95) at the University of Kentucky. He completed his dissertation (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1976 and his habilitation in 1982.

His main research interests are stochastic models of operations research and adaptive stochastic control theory.

Since 2013, he is the project leader of the ISSEM and the ICEM.