Vollhardt’s collaboration with the University of Warsaw began in 2000 when the physicist Krzysztof Byczuk visited the University of Augsburg as a postdoctoral researcher on a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Byczuk was involved in projects connected to Vollhardt’s research group. “This was the beginning of a wonderful and fruitful collaboration that continues to this day,” says Vollhardt.

Since then, Vollhardt has worked closely with researchers from Byczuk’s own research group, who is now director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Warsaw. Researchers from the Institute of Theoretical Physics have visited the University of Augsburg on research stays, while Vollhardt has held lecturers at the University of Warsaw. The longstanding collaboration has borne fruit, producing over thirty joint publications. Vollhardt’s research in the area of correlated electronic systems has also been established at the Faculty for Physics at the University of Warsaw.

Scientific and cultural enrichment

Vollhardt has been awarded the honorary doctorate by the University of Warsaw in recognition of his longstanding commitment and his fundamental contributions to the theory of electronic correlations and magnetism.

“It is an extraordinary honour and a great pleasure for me to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Warsaw today. With this high distinction, I am proud to join the University of Warsaw – one of the most outstanding centres of academic excellence in the world,” said Vollhardt. “International collaborations not only lead to scientific progress but also bring about cultural enrichment through personal relations. As for me, I learned a lot about Poland and the Polish way of life from Professor Byczuk,” emphasised Vollhardt, praising the respectful and trusting nature of their collaboration.

Vollhardt has been a professor at the University of Augsburg for over twenty years

Vollhardt’s main areas of research are the theory of electronic correlations and magnetism, and in particular the realistic modelling of electronically correlated materials, as well as disordered quantum systems and normal or superfluid Helium 3.

From 1996 to 2018, Vollhardt was Professor for Theoretical Physics III at the Centre for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism at the Institute for Physics at the University of Augsburg and from 2000 to 2009 speaker for the first Augsburg DFG Collaborative Research Centre. From 2010 to 2017, he led the DFG Research Unit FOR1346 “Dynamical Mean-Field Approach with Predictive Power for Strongly Correlated Materials.”

Vollhardt has received many academic honours

Vollhardt has received many academic honours for his contributions to science, including the European Physical Society’s Europhysics Prize in 2006, the Max Planck Medal in 2010, which is the highest prize awarded by the German Physical Society in area of theoretical physics, the Ernst Mach Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences in 2011, as well as the Feenberg Memorial Medal for Many-Bodied Physics in 2022. Since 2011, Vollhardt has been a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and since 2020 a fellow of the American Physical Society.  

“We are proud and grateful for the collaboration and partnership in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence with researchers and doctoral candidates,” said Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, rector of the University of Warsaw, who presented the award, emphasising that “Vollhardt’s exceptional contributions to the field of the theory of electronic correlations and magnetism have left an indelible mark in publications in numerous prestigious scientific journals.”