The Australian Institute of Physics was established in 1963, when it replaced the Australian Branch of the British Institute of Physics based in London.A History of the Physics Department of the University of Queensland Emeritus Professor H C Webster, 31 March 1977, accessed 6 February 2012 The purpose of the institute is to promote the role of physics in research, education, industry and the community.Australian Institute of Physics The AIP publishes Australian Physics (ISSN 1036-3831) since 1963. Every two years, the Institute organises a national congress, the latest being held in December 2024 in Melbourne.

Organisation The institute has branches in each of the six Australian states, and topical groups in the following areas: Atomic Physics and Molecular Physics Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Physics Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics Physics Education Quantum Information, Concepts and Quantum Coherence Solar Physics, Terrestrial Physics and Space Physics Theoretical Physics Women in Physics

Presidents

1962–65 Leonard Huxley 1966–67 F. Lehany 1968 Alan Walsh 1969–70 A. Harper 1971–72 Robert Street 1973–74 F. J. Jacka 1975–76 J. Campbell 1977–78 Terry Sabine 1979–80 Herbert Bolton 1981–82 Neville Fletcher 1983–84 G. V. H. Wilson 1985–86 T. Fred Smith 1987–88 John Collins 1989–90 Anthony Klein 1991–92 Anthony Thomas 1993–94 Robert Crompton 1995–96 Ron McDonald 1997–98 Jaan Oitmaa 1999–2000 John Pilbrow 2001–02 John O'Connor 2003–04 Rob Elliman 2005–06 David Jamieson 2007–08 Cathy Foley 2009–10 Brian James 2011–12 Marc Duldig 2013–14 Robert Robinson 2015–16 Warrick Couch 2017–18 Andrew Peele 2019–20 Jodie Bradby 2021–22 Sven Rogge 2022–23 Nicole Bell

Awards

Bragg Gold Medal The Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics has been awarded since 1992 for the best PhD thesis by a student from an Australian University and to commemorate Sir Lawrence Bragg (in front on the medal) and his father Sir William Henry Bragg who both played a significant part in physics education in Australia. Winners so far are:

1992 Stephen Bass, University of Adelaide 1993 Henry Chapman, University of Melbourne 1994 Wolodymyr Melnitchouk, University of Adelaide 1995 Howard Wiseman, University of Queensland 1996 Andre Luiten, University of Western Australia 1997 Alexander Buryak, Australian National University 1998 Tanya Monro, University of Sydney 1999 Ping Koy Lam, Australian National University 2000 Mark Oxley, University of Melbourne 2001 Nicole Bell, University of Melbourne 2002 Annette Berriman, Australian National University 2003 Michael Bromley, Charles Darwin University 2004 Warwick Bowen, Australian National University 2005 Philip Bartlett, Murdoch University 2006 Alex Argyros, University of Sydney 2008 Frank Ruess, University of New South Wales 2009 Christian Romer Rosberg, Australian National University 2010 Clancy William James, University of Adelaide 2011 Adrian D'Alfonso, University of Melbourne 2012 Eva Kuhnle, Swinburne University of Technology 2013 Martin Fuechsle, University of New South Wales 2014 Andrew Sutton, Australian National University 2015 Jarryd Pla, University of New South Wales 2016 Phiala Shanahan, University of Adelaide 2017 Daniel Leykam, Australian National University 2018 Yevgeny Stadnik, University of New South Wales 2019 Samuel Gorman, University of New South Wales 2020 Alexander Bray, Australian National University 2021 Timothy Gray, Australian National University 2022 Sebastian Wolf, University of Melbourne 2023 Kirill Koshelev, Australian National University 2024 Matthew Berrington, Australian National University

Dirac Medal

The Dirac Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics is awarded by the University of New South Wales in Sydney, jointly with the Australian Institute of Physics on the occasion of the public Dirac Lecture. The Lecture and the Medal commemorate the visit to the university in 1975 of Professor Dirac, who gave five lectures there. These lectures were subsequently published as a book: Directions of Physics (Wiley, 1978 – H. Hora and J. Shepanski, eds.). Professor Dirac donated the royalties from this book to the University for the establishment of the Dirac Lecture series. The prize, first awarded in 1979, includes a silver medal and honorarium. The recipients of the prize are:

1979: Hannes Alfvén 1981: John Clive Ward 1983: Nicolaas Bloembergen 1985: David Pines 1987: Robert Hofstadter 1988: Klaus von Klitzing 1989: Carlo Rubbia & Kenneth G. Wilson 1990: Norman F. Ramsey 1991: Herbert A. Hauptman 1992: Wolfgang Paul 1996: Edwin Salpeter 2002: Heinrich Hora 2003: 2004: Iosif Khriplovich 2006: Sir Roger Penrose 2008: Harald Fritzsch

2011: Lord May of Oxford 2012: Brian Schmidt 2013: Sir Michael Pepper 2014: Serge Haroche 2015: Subir Sachdev 2016: Kenneth Freeman 2017: Boris Altshuler 2019: Lene Hau 2020: Susan Scott

2023: Klaus Mølmerhttps://www.unsw.edu.au/science/our-schools/physics/engage-with-us/dirac-medal

Honorary Fellows

David Booth Gordon Chapman Robert Crompton John Robert de Laeter Robert Delbourgo Geoff Forrest Michael Gorroick Tony Klein GC Lowenthal AM Bruce McKellar Arthur Page Brian Schmidt John Symonds Anthony William Thomas AC Gertrud Thompson

Fellows

Derek Abbott Ronald Ernest Aitchison Hans A. Bachor Clive Baldock Murray Batchelor Nicole Bell David Blair Sean Cadogan Susan Coppersmith Warrick Couch Mahananda Dasgupta Robert Delbourgo John Robert de Laeter Peter Drummond F. J. Duarte Ben Eggleton Min Gu Peter Hannaford Arthur Robert Hogg Heinrich Hora Leonard Huxley Rodney Jory Yuri Kivshar Bruce Harold John McKellar Tanya Monro Brian J. Orr James A. Piper Arthur W. Pryor Anthony William Thomas John Clive Ward Alan Walsh John White Muhammad Usman

References

External links