The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corporate headquarters are at the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland, but the institute also has offices in Melville, New York, and Beijing.
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Historical overview
The AIP was founded in 1931 as a response to lack of funding for the sciences during the Great Depression. The AIP was founded in 1931 at a joint meeting between four physics societies: the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the Acoustical Society of America, and the Society of Rheology. These were soon joined by the American Association of Physics Teachers, for a total of five societies. It formally incorporated in 1932 consisting of five original "member societies", and a total of four thousand members. As soon as the AIP was established it began publishing scientific journals. By 1943, the AIP published eight journals: Physical Review, Reviews of Modern Physics, Journal of the Optical Society of America, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, American Journal of Physics, Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Chemical Physics.
A new set of member societies was added beginning in the mid-1960s.
The organization restructured in 2013, creating a new subsidiary, AIP Publishing LLC, to manage physical publications of its journals with a smaller board.
List of publications
The AIP has a subsidiary called AIP Publishing (wholly owned non-profit) dedicated to scholarly publishing by the AIP and its member societies, as well on behalf of other partners.
AIP style
AIP created a manual of style first introduced in 1951, called AIP style, which also includes the AIP citation format. It is the most commonly used style and citation format in physics publications.
Awards and prizes bestowed by the AIP
Andrew Gemant Award – "Recognizes significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics"
John T. Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics – "Presented for distinguished service to the profession of physics by a non-U.S. national." The award is given biennially on odd-numbered years, and was first given in 1960.
Karl T. Compton Medal for Leadership in Physics – "Presented for distinguished statesmanship in science." The award is given biennially on even-numbered years, and was established in 1957.
Dannie Heineman Astrophysics Prize – "Recognizes accomplishments in theoretical astrophysics." Established in 1978, awarded jointly by the AIP and the American Astronomical Society, and funded by the Heineman Foundation.
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics – "Recognizes accomplishments in mathematical physics." Established in 1959, awarded jointly by the AIP and the American Physical Society, and funded by the Heineman Foundation.
Abraham Pais Award for History of Physics – "Recognizes outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics." Established in 2005, awarded jointly by the AIP and the American Physical Society.
Meggers Project Award – "Awarded biennially for projects designed to improve high school physics"
Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics – "Sponsored by General Motors and awarded biennially to publicize the value of physics research in industry"
Fluid Dynamics Prize – "Recognizes outstanding achievement in research with demonstrated major impact on the discipline, jointly sponsored with the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics"