Volker Springel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching is being honored for his work in the field of numerical astrophysics. The methods he developed, explained, among other things, how the manifold-structured cosmos could emerge from an early, almost uniform universe. In addition, the astrophysicist has investigated the critical role that feedback processes play in the evolution of galaxies and their black holes and could show that galaxy formation is a self-regulated process.
Volker Springel did his doctorate in 2000 in astrophysics at the LMU Munich, followed by a postdoc in Harvard. From 2001 to 2009 he was a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching. In 2009 Volker Springel became a professor at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies. In 2018 he returned to Garching, as director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. Volker Springel received the Otto Hahn Medal, the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize and the Gruber Cosmology Prize. Since 2016 he is a member of the Leopoldina.
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is the most important research award in Germany. The Leibniz Prize is awarded to up to ten scientists and is provided with max. €2.5 million per award. The Prize is designated to improve the working conditions of outstanding researchers, expand their research opportunities, relieve them of administrative tasks, and help them employ particularly qualified early career researchers.
