History

The Portuguese Physical Society traces its roots back to 1911, when the Portuguese Chemical Society was founded in Oporto, with a Physics Section. Later, with the increased importance of Physics, this society became the Portuguese Chemical and Physical Society in 1926. The two societies only became independent in 1974.

The “Portugaliae Physica” was a scientific journal created in 1943 during the Second World War. Its founders were the Professors Manuel Valadares (1904–1992), Aurélio Marques da Silva (1905–1965), former students of Madame Curie, together with Cyrillo Soares (1883–1950) and Manuel Telles Antunes (1905–1965). The journal “Nature”, dated 15 July 1944, welcomed the new journal: “At a time when the study of pure science has been necessarily replaced for so many by sterner pursuits, it is pleasant to realize that there are still countries where it is growing and needs new mediums for publication”. Inspite of its name, papers were not published in Portuguese but rather in French or English. This journal was integrated in the European Physical Journal in 1999.

The oldest publication of the Portuguese Physical Society is the Physics Gazette (“Gazeta de Física” in Portuguese) regularly published since 1946. This journal has a very broad audience. A significant number of issues of the “Gazeta de Física” is available in our website. The oldest issues were digitized with the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation.

The current President of the Portuguese Physical Society is Prof. Maria Teresa Peña.

The Portuguese Physical Society is a member of:

• IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics);

• EPS (European Physical Society);

• IOMP (International Organization of Medical Physics);

• IUCr (International Union of Crystallography);

• FEIASOFI (Federación Iberoamericana de Sociedades de Física)