Gerhard Vollmer was born in Speyer in 1943. From 1963 to 1968 he studied physics, mathematics, and chemistry in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg, and from 1967 to 1974 philosophy and linguistics in Freiburg and Montreal. He received his PhD in physics in 1971 and his PhD in philosophy in 1974, both in Freiburg. From 1971 to 1974 he worked as a scientific assistant for theoretical physics with Siegfried Flügge. In 1975 he became academic councillor/senior councillor for philosophy in Hanover. From 1981 to 1991 he was professor of philosophy at the Center for Philosophy and Foundations of Science Giessen, Germany. At the same time he was a member of the biology faculty and multiple times managing director of the center. Since 1991 he has been professor of philosophy at the Technical University of Braunschweig​ and managing director of the philosophy seminar. Gerhard Vollmer is considered one of the pioneers of evolutionary epistemology and a bridge-builder between the natural and cultural sciences.

Publications (selection):

• Evolutionäre Erkenntnistheorie (Evolutionary epistemology), 1975, 8. edition 2002; also published in Japanese, Chinese, Russian; Spanish
• Was können wir wissen? (What can we know?), 2 volumes. 2. edition 1988
• Wissenschaftstheorie im Einsatz (Philosophy of Science in practice), 1993
• Auf der Suche nach der Ordnung (In search of order), 1995
• Biophilosophie (Philosophy of Biology), 1995
• Wieso können wir die Welt erkennen? (How is it that we can know this world?), 2002

Website:

http://www.tu-braunschweig.de/philosophie/personen/vollmer