The Imperial St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists founded in 1868 under the Imperial St. Petersburg University, established in the 1910 an international award in the name of Alexander Onufrievich Kowalevsky, the great Russian embryologist, one of the founders of comparative developmental embryology, a graduate and later a professor of St. Petersburg University.
The award comprised of a medal and a monetary prize of 250 gold roubles. The plaque medal was created by P. G.Stadnitsky. The front face of the medal portrayed A.O. Kowalevsky, the reverse side displayed the sea-bed with various kinds of invertebrates which Kowalevsky studied. The medal was awarded for research in comparative anatomy and embryology of animals. Manufacturing of medals and creation of the award fund was somewhat delayed. Thus the award was never given. The Fisrt World War broke out in 1914, then the February and October revolutions of 1917 took place, the civil war that lasted for many years which led to the devastation of the country. All these disasters that Russia endured made the decision of SPbSN on the international award untimely, and the award sank into oblivion for a long time.
The idea of the Kowalevsky medal emerged again in 2000. The medal was found in the numismatic collection of the State Hermitage. It turned out that the medal was manufactured at the St. Petersburg Mint and that the Mint Museum still had the moulds for plaque casting. Unfortunately, the upper edge of the mould with the signature of A.O. Kowalevsky was damaged and had to be removed. Nevertheless, the medal was restored by the efforts of the Mint stuff.
In March 2001, the SPbSN Academic Council reinstated the international award of the Society in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of A.O. Kowalevsky's death. According to the Medal’s Statute, since then the medal has been anually awarded to researchers who have made outstanding contributions to modern understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the major groups of the animal kingdom, to the development of modern approaches in comparative zoology, embryology, and evolutionary developmental biology.
Winners of the international award “The Kowalevsky medal of SPbOE”
