The American Physical Society
• actively represents its more than
40,000 members in the arena of
national, international, and governmental affairs
• publishes the world's most prestigious
and widely-read physics
research journals
• conducts over 20 national, divisional
and regional meetings every year
• develops and implements effective
programs in physics education and
outreach
• fosters the health of the profession
through its career and development
initiatives and its committees on women and minorities
• informs its members of the latest
developments through APS News,
Physical Review Focus, and articles in Physics Today
• communicates with the public and
policymakers via the national media
and a public web site, www.physicscentral.com
• monitors the human rights of
scientists around the globe
• recognizes professional accomplishment
with a spectrum of prizes,
awards and the election of APS Fellows
Background: The American Physical
Society was founded on May 20, 1899, when 36 physicists gathered at
Columbia University for that purpose. They 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, 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 nineteen sixties, the APS is
active in public and governmental affairs, and in the international
physics community. In addition, the Society conducts extensive programs in
education, public outreach, and media relations. The APS has fourteen
divisions and nine topical groups covering all areas of physics research,.
There are six forums that reflect the interest of its 43,000 members in
broader issues, and eight sections organized by geographical region.
In 1999, the APS celebrated its Centennial with the
biggest-ever physics meeting in Atlanta, and in 2005 the APS will take a
lead role in US participation in the World Year of Physics.
