The task of science is to stake out the limits of the knowable, and to center consciousness within them.

His most widely known scientific contribution is his cell theory which built on the work of Theodor Schwann. Because his writings were not receiving favourable attention by German editors he associated with Benno Reinhardt in founding the Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medizin world-famous as “Virchow's Archives” which he edited alone from Reinhardt's death in 1852 until his own. Such a reinstatement was evidence of the name he was achieving for himself in scientific and medical circles.

In 1892 he was awarded the Copley Medal. The Society for Medical Anthropology gives an annual award in Virchow's name the Rudolf Virchow Award.