Outstanding: Bremen Climate Scientist Receives Renowned Leibniz Prize 2021

Professor Veronika Eyring from the Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering has received the 2021 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation for outstanding work in the field of climate modelling. The most renowned German scientific prize is endowed with 2.5 million euros.

“I am extremely pleased about this significant honor for Veronika Eyring and for the University of Bremen,” states Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, president of the University of Bremen, regarding the decision made by the German Research Foundation (DFG) today. “By awarding the Leibniz Prize to Professor Veronika Eyring from the University of Bremen, the DFG has once more confirmed the fantastic quality we have as a climate-conscious university. Environmental sciences and their computer-based climate models are indispensable in order to gain information concerning possible developments for research into climate chance.”

Professor Veronika Eyring is just as happy: “The Leibniz Prize is a significant award and great recognition. I would like to thank the DFG for this great honor and also my colleagues at the University of Bremen and the DLR for their amazing support and the joint work in the past years. I am particularly pleased that the prize also honors atmosphere and climate research. The additional funds will offer me many new possibilities to realize my research ideas for the improvement of climate models and their analyses.”

Veronika Eyring received the Leibniz Prize as she has significantly contributed to the understanding of climate forecasts by means of process-oriented modelling and model evaluation and the improvement thereof. She expanded her original research, which focused on the analysis of the effects of ship emissions on atmospheric composition, the climate, and human health, to include modelling of the Earth system and climate. Eyring also contributes her findings as coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Human Influence on the Climate System report.

Professor Veronika Eyring’s Career

In July 2017, the University of Bremen and the German Aerospace Center Bremen (DLR) appointed her professor of climate modelling within the Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering. After completing her diploma in physics at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Nürnberg-Erlangen, she completed a PhD and habilitated at the University of Bremen in the field of environmental physics. At the DLR – Institute of Atmospheric Physics, she is the head of the Earth System Model Evaluation and Analysis department. Together with the department for climate modelling at the University of Bremen, the department analyses climate model simulations in combination with observed data. The Helmholtz Association supports this cooperation over the course of five years in the frame of the Program for Excellent Female Scientists. Since 2014, Veronika Eyring has been the chair of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), which is run by the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) that coordinates global climate model simulations. The work done on model evaluation forms a significant requirement for reliable climate prognoses in the 21^st century, which can then be used in the climate politics guidelines.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize

The DFG has awarded the Leibniz Prize annually since 1986. The prize honors outstanding scientists for their research in all scientific fields. They generally receive 2.5 million euros prize money that they can use as they wish for their scientific work and without complicated bureaucratic processes in a timeframe of up to seven years. Up to ten prizes are awarded each year. A total of 415 nominated persons, of which 353 were male scientists and 62 were female scientists, have won the prize to date. The prize is one of the most significant scientific honors globally.

Leibniz Winners at the University of Bremen

Alongside Professor Veronika Eyring, the following scientists from the University of Bremen have won the Leibniz Prize: Professor Ekkard Brinksmeier (Manufacturing Engineering, 1999), Professor Frank Vollertsen (Manufacturing Engineering, 2002), Professor Antje Boetius (Microbial Ecology, 2009), Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs (Organic Geochemistry, 2011), Professor Nicole Dubilier (Marine Ecology, 2014) und Professor Lutz Mädler (Material Sciences, 2017).