Medal
The Mathematical Institute awards the Otto Volk Medal. Created in 1996, this award commemorates Otto Volk, who was director of the Mathematical Seminar and head of the Astronomical Institute and Observatory at the University of Würzburg from 1937 onwards.
Volk took an active interest in the faculty's activities until his death in 1989.
In 1983, he established a foundation whose proceeds are used to promote mathematics and celestial mechanics as well as the history of mathematics and astronomy.
His work is commemorated, among other things, by a plaque on the tower of the Neubaukirche, which housed the university observatory until 1945.
The bronze and silver medals
The Otto Volk Medal shows the founder at the age of 60 on the front.
The emblem of the Otto Volk Foundation is depicted on the back. It shows buildings in his hometown of Neuhausen auf den Fildern near Stuttgart in the foreground.
In the background, the fortress refers to Würzburg, where he lived and worked since 1930.
The ribbon bears a saying in Greek that translates as: God does arithmetic.
The compass and triangle are reminiscent of geometry. The celestial bodies refer to astronomy.
There are versions in bronze and silver.
