The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physical Society for the UK and Ireland and supports physics in education, research and industry. In addition to this, the IOP provides services to its members including careers advice and professional development and grants the professional qualification of Chartered Physicist (CPhys), as well as Chartered Engineer (CEng) as a nominated body of the Engineering Council; it also holds its own separate Royal Charter. The IOP's publishing company, IOP Publishing, publishes 85 academic titles.
History
The Institute of Physics was formed in 1960 from the merger of the Physical Society, founded as the Physical Society of London in 1874, and the Institute of Physics, founded in 1918. The Physical Society of London had been officially formed on 14 February 1874 by Frederick Guthrie, following the canvassing of opinion of Fellows of the Royal Society by the physicist and parapsychologist Sir William Barrett at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Bradford in 1873, with John Hall Gladstone as its first president. From its beginning, the society held open meetings and demonstrations and published Proceedings of the Physical Society. Meetings were held every two weeks, mainly at Imperial College London. The first Guthrie lecture, now known as the Faraday Medal and Prize, was delivered in 1914. In the early part of the 20th century, the profession of "physicist" emerged, partly as a result of the increased demand for scientists during the First World War. In 1917, following discussions between William Eccles and William Duddell, the Council of the Physical Society, along with the Faraday Society, the Optical Society, and the Roentgen Society, started to explore ways of improving the professional status of physicists, and in 1918, the Institute of Physics was created at a meeting of the four societies held at King's College London. In 1919, Sir Richard Glazebrook was elected first president of the institute, and the inaugural meeting of the Institute took place in 1921. As with the Physical Society, dissemination of knowledge was fundamental to the institute, which began publication of the Journal of Scientific Instruments in 1922. The annual Reports on Progress in Physics began in 1934 and is still published today. In 1952, the institute began the "Graduateship" course and examination, which ran until 1984 when the expansion of access to universities removed demand. In 1932, the Physical Society of London merged with the Optical Society to create the Physical Society. In 1960, the Physical Society and the Institute of Physics merged, creating a single organization with the name The Institute of Physics and the Physical Society, with John Cockcroft elected at its first president. The new society combined the learned society tradition of the Physical Society with the professional body tradition of the Institute of Physics. Under the leadership of Thomas E. Nevin, an Irish branch of the Institute of Physics was formed in 1964. Upon being granted a royal charter in 1970, the organization was renamed as the Institute of Physics.
Membership The IOP has 23,000 members split across four grades of membership: Associate Member (AMInstP), Member (entitled to use the postnominals MInstP), Fellow (entitled to use the postnominals FInstP) and Honorary Fellow (entitled to use the postnominals Hon.FInstP). Undergraduates, apprentices and trainees can become Associate Members, and qualification for MInstP is normally by completion of an undergraduate degree that is "recognised" by the institute – this covers almost all UK physics degrees. An MInstP can become an FInstP by making "an outstanding contribution to the profession" that is judged via double-blind and anonymous peer review. These four grades of membership replaced the previous seven grades in January 2018; these changes introduced removed affiliate memberships for undergraduates (they are now Associate Members), removed the post-nominal letters AMInstP, and made Associate Members voting members. In 2015, the membership of the Institute of Physics was 86% male at MInstP and 91% male at FInstP. 85% of Honorary Fellows were male. The institute grants academic dress to the various grades of membership. Those who have passed the institute's graduateeship examination (offered 1952–1984) are entitled to a violet damask Oxford burgon-shaped hood. Corporate members (MInstP) are entitled to wear a hood of Toronto full shape in violet damask, lined in violet and faced on the cowl with 2"/5 cm shot crimson silk. The gown for members and those who have passed the graduateship examination is the same pattern as that used by the University of London for their Bachelor of Arts, but with the sleeves loped by violet cords and buttons, the Fellow's gown follows the pattern of the Doctor's robes of Oxford University in black with (according to Groves 2014) 4" cuffs in violet damask, or (according to the IOP website) 15 cm cuffs and 10 cm facings in violet taffeta, the cuffs slightly gathered with red cords and violet buttons. Fellows wear a doctor's bonnet in black velvet with red tassels, other grades wear a standard black mortarboard with black tassels.
Professional qualifications
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
