The awarding of the prize was reported on in Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (https://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2020/pressemitteilung_nr_54/, in German) and we provide a transcription of the relevant parts of the article here:

Leibniz Prizes 2021: DFG honors four female and six male researchers

The new recipients of Germany's most important research funding award have been selected: The Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) today awarded the 2021 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize to four female and six male scientists. They were selected from 131 proposals by the selection committee. The award winners will receive 2.5 million Euros each. They can use these funds for their research work for up to seven years according to their own ideas.

The DFG's "Förderpreis im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm" for 2021 will be awarded to: Professor Dr Veronika Eyring, Earth System Modelling, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen site and University of Bremen.

Eyring Prize 2021

Photo credit: https://www.spaceflightnow.de/dlr-leibniz-preis-fuer-veronika-eyring/

Veronika Eyring receives the Leibniz Prize for her significant contribution to improving the understanding and accuracy of climate predictions through process-oriented modelling and model evaluation. Her research, originally related to assessing the impact of ship emissions on atmospheric composition, climate and human health, expanded to include Earth system and climate modelling. More recently, she has focused on developing innovative methods to improve the predictive power of models. As part of a large international research network, Veronika Eyring is leading the development of the so-called Earth System Model Evaluation Tool, which allows the comparison of climate models - a crucial step towards reducing uncertainties in predictions of future climate development. Veronika also contributes her findings as coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Assessment Report on "Human Impact on the Climate System".

Veronika Eyring received her doctorate from the University of Bremen in 1999 and her habilitation in environmental physics as part of a Helmholtz junior research group in 2008. Since 2000, she has also been a research associate at the DLR Institute for Atmospheric Physics. Visiting professorships and stays at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, USA, and an honorary visiting professorship at the University of Exeter, UK, followed. In 2017, Veronika Eyring was appointed Professor of Climate Modelling at the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen together with DLR. Since 2018, she has also headed the Earth System Model Evaluation and Analysis department at DLR.