American Physical Society

The American Physical Society was founded on May 20, 1899, when thirty-six physicists gathered at Columbia University for that purpose. The attendees included two women physicists, Isabelle Stone and Marcia Keith. The group proclaimed the mission of the new Society to be "to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics", and in one way or another the APS has been at that task ever since. In the early years, virtually the sole activity of the APS was to hold scientific meetings, initially four per year. In 1913, the APS took over the operation of the Physical Review, which had been founded in 1893 at Cornell University, and journal publication became its second major activity. The Physical Review was followed by Reviews of Modern Physics in 1929 and by Physical Review Letters in 1958. Over the years, Phys. Rev. has subdivided into five separate sections as the fields of physics proliferated and the number of submissions grew.

In more recent years, the activities of the society have broadened considerably. Stimulated by the increase in federal funding in the period after the Second World War, and even more by the increased public involvement of scientists in the 1960s, the APS is active in public and governmental affairs, and in the international physics community. It also conducts extensive programs in education, science outreach (specifically physics outreach), and media relations. Fourteen divisions and eleven topical groups covering all areas of physics research. Six forums reflect the interests of its fifty thousand members in broader issues, and nine sections organized by geographical region.

In 1999, APS Physics celebrated its centennial with the biggest-ever physics meeting in Atlanta. In 2005, APS took the lead role in United States participation in the World Year of Physics, initiating several programs to broadly publicize physics during the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis. Einstein@Home, one of the projects APS initiated during World Year of Physics, is an ongoing and popular distributed computing project.

Name confusion and change proposal

During the summer of 2005, the society conducted an electronic poll, in which the majority of APS members preferred the name American Physics Society. The poll became the motivation for a proposal of a name change promised in the leadership election that year. For legal reasons, the planned name change was eventually abandoned by the APS Executive Board.

To promote public recognition of APS as a physics society, while retaining the name American Physical Society, the APS Executive Board adopted a new logo incorporating the phrase "APS Physics."

APS introduced a new logo to replace the APS Physics logo on November 1, 2022.

Astrophysics (DAP)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics (DAMOP): The objective of the division is the promotion of the fundamental research on atoms, simple molecules, electrons and light, and their interactions. Historically, this is the oldest division of the American Physical Society. It was created in 1943. The division manages a number of prestigious awards for AMO scientists at various stages of their careers, such as the Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics, Rabi Prize in AMO Physics, Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in AMO Physics, Herbert P. Broida Prize, etc. It also organizes annual DAMOP Meetings attended by many leading AMO researchers, both from the United States and abroad.

Biological Physics (DBIO): With over 2,000 members, the division is the second largest learned society in the world devoted to biological physics, following the Biophysical Society. The objective of the division is the advancement and dissemination of knowledge on the broad interface of physics and biology. This includes studying biological phenomena with physics tools and identifying new physics questions within biological contexts. The division supports a program of over 600 (as of 2016) presentations at the annual March Meeting of the APS, on topics ranging from protein biophysics, to neuroscience and evolution. It promotes research and development of biological physics, enhanced the standing of the field, and recognizes important contributions to the field, such as by awarding the Max Delbruck Prize in biological physics.

Chemical Physics (DCP)