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Mexican Physical Society
Founded in 1950
On 15 August 1950, a group of researchers and professors mainly from the Institute of Physics, the Faculty of Sciences, and the National Preparatory School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), met to establish the Mexican Physical Society (Sociedad Mexicana de Física, SMF). On 18 December of that year, the election of the Board of Directors and the Consultative Council took place, with Carlos Graef Fernández elected as President. They signed the Constitutive Act on 5 April 1951 and took office ten days later. The primary objective was to promote research and stimulate interest in physics in various sectors of the population.
The first meeting of the Society took place in the city of Querétaro on 22-26 April 1952. For a report of the first meeting of the Society, see THIS LINK.
The founding act of the Society was signed by 21 people and by 1981, 30 years later, its membership amounted to 1400 fellows. The large development of the SMF was a consequence of the development of physics in Mexico. An example of this is that of the 14 physics teaching institutions for undergraduate and/or graduate studies present by 1981, only two existed in 1951.
Today [2023], the Mexican Physical Society is an association of physicists and other collaborators dedicated to contributing to research in different areas of physics, as well as organising important national events related to this science, such as the Physics Olympiad and the Teaching Meetings. This Society is also responsible for the accreditation and supervision of learning and teaching in physics at the upper secondary and higher level. Its main offices are located in the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, in Mexico City. The SMF is divided into Thematic Divisions, which are sub-organisations of the Society focused on a particular area of physics.
Currently, the SMF is made up of nine Thematic Divisions, which are: Medical Physics, Fluids and Plasmas, Gravitation and Mathematical Physics, Optics Division, Physics Teaching, Particles and Fields, Nuclear Physics, Radiation Physics and Statistical Physics.
It has two regional divisions, in Puebla and Tabasco.
The Mexican Journal of Physics, the Revista Mexicana de Física, was first published in 1952. The first volume contains the paper Campo gravitacional de Birkhoff de un punto masa en movimiento arbitrario en la teoría de Birkhoff by Carlos Graef Fernández and a paper by Eugene P Wigner, Derivative matrix and scattering matrix which is published in English and a Spanish translation is also published. The Journal continues to be published with one volume of six parts each year. The current volumes have five sections. 1. Letters. Original research or instrumental papers which require fast publication. 2. Reviews. Critical surveys of specific physics subjects in which existing published information is analysed and discussed. 3. Research. Articles with original results in the physical sciences. 4. Instrumentation. Original contributions on the design of scientific instruments, devices and integrated circuits. 5. Education. Articles containing new and original ways of presenting concepts or problems in physics, experiments and designs which can be worked out in laboratories, and original simulation programs.
Presidents of the Mexican Physical Society
Carlos Graef Fernández
1951-1963
Fernando De Alba Andrade
1964-1966
Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky
1967-1969
Fernando Prieto Calderón
1969-1971
Pier Achille Mello Picco
1971-1973
Jorge Flores Valdés
1973-1975
Sergio Reyes Luján
1975-1977
Alpio G. Calles Martínez
1978-1980
Rosalía Ridaura Sanz
1981-1982
Ramón Peralta Fabi
1983-1984
Rafael Pérez Pascual
1985-1986
Rubén Gerardo Barrera y Pérez
1987-1988
Eugenio Ley Koo
1989-1990
Alejandro Cornejo Rodríguez
1991-1992
Arnulfo Zepeda Domínguez
1993-1994
José Luis Morán López
1995-1996
Carmen Cisneros Gudiño
1997-1998
Pedro Hugo Hernández Tejeda
1999- 2000
Gerardo Contreras Puente
2001-2002
Héctor O. Murrieta Sánchez
2003-2004
Esther Ortiz Salazar
2005-2006
Francisco Ramos Gómez
2007-2008
Luis Felipe Rodríguez Jorge
2009-2010
Romeo De Coss Gómez
2011-2012
Jaime Urrutia Fucugauchi
2013-2014
Estela Susana Lizano Soberón
2015-2016
Darío Núñez Zúñiga
2017-2018
Tonatiuh Matos Chassin
2019-2020
Ana María Cetto Kramis
2021-2022
Tonatiuh Matos Chassin
2023-2024
The first meeting of the Society took place in the city of Querétaro on 22-26 April 1952. For a report of the first meeting of the Society, see THIS LINK.
The founding act of the Society was signed by 21 people and by 1981, 30 years later, its membership amounted to 1400 fellows. The large development of the SMF was a consequence of the development of physics in Mexico. An example of this is that of the 14 physics teaching institutions for undergraduate and/or graduate studies present by 1981, only two existed in 1951.
Today [2023], the Mexican Physical Society is an association of physicists and other collaborators dedicated to contributing to research in different areas of physics, as well as organising important national events related to this science, such as the Physics Olympiad and the Teaching Meetings. This Society is also responsible for the accreditation and supervision of learning and teaching in physics at the upper secondary and higher level. Its main offices are located in the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, in Mexico City. The SMF is divided into Thematic Divisions, which are sub-organisations of the Society focused on a particular area of physics.
Currently, the SMF is made up of nine Thematic Divisions, which are: Medical Physics, Fluids and Plasmas, Gravitation and Mathematical Physics, Optics Division, Physics Teaching, Particles and Fields, Nuclear Physics, Radiation Physics and Statistical Physics.
It has two regional divisions, in Puebla and Tabasco.
The Mexican Journal of Physics, the Revista Mexicana de Física, was first published in 1952. The first volume contains the paper Campo gravitacional de Birkhoff de un punto masa en movimiento arbitrario en la teoría de Birkhoff by Carlos Graef Fernández and a paper by Eugene P Wigner, Derivative matrix and scattering matrix which is published in English and a Spanish translation is also published. The Journal continues to be published with one volume of six parts each year. The current volumes have five sections. 1. Letters. Original research or instrumental papers which require fast publication. 2. Reviews. Critical surveys of specific physics subjects in which existing published information is analysed and discussed. 3. Research. Articles with original results in the physical sciences. 4. Instrumentation. Original contributions on the design of scientific instruments, devices and integrated circuits. 5. Education. Articles containing new and original ways of presenting concepts or problems in physics, experiments and designs which can be worked out in laboratories, and original simulation programs.
Presidents of the Mexican Physical Society
Carlos Graef Fernández
1951-1963
Fernando De Alba Andrade
1964-1966
Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky
1967-1969
Fernando Prieto Calderón
1969-1971
Pier Achille Mello Picco
1971-1973
Jorge Flores Valdés
1973-1975
Sergio Reyes Luján
1975-1977
Alpio G. Calles Martínez
1978-1980
Rosalía Ridaura Sanz
1981-1982
Ramón Peralta Fabi
1983-1984
Rafael Pérez Pascual
1985-1986
Rubén Gerardo Barrera y Pérez
1987-1988
Eugenio Ley Koo
1989-1990
Alejandro Cornejo Rodríguez
1991-1992
Arnulfo Zepeda Domínguez
1993-1994
José Luis Morán López
1995-1996
Carmen Cisneros Gudiño
1997-1998
Pedro Hugo Hernández Tejeda
1999- 2000
Gerardo Contreras Puente
2001-2002
Héctor O. Murrieta Sánchez
2003-2004
Esther Ortiz Salazar
2005-2006
Francisco Ramos Gómez
2007-2008
Luis Felipe Rodríguez Jorge
2009-2010
Romeo De Coss Gómez
2011-2012
Jaime Urrutia Fucugauchi
2013-2014
Estela Susana Lizano Soberón
2015-2016
Darío Núñez Zúñiga
2017-2018
Tonatiuh Matos Chassin
2019-2020
Ana María Cetto Kramis
2021-2022
Tonatiuh Matos Chassin
2023-2024
Visit the society website.
References (show)
- J M Lozano, L García-Colín and A Calles, Historia de la Sociedad Mexicana de Física, Revista Mexicana de Física 28 (3) (1981), 277-293.
https://rmf.smf.mx/ojs/index.php/rmf/article/view/1196/1061 - M de la Paz Ramos Lara, Remembranza de la fundación de la Sociedad Mexicana de Física en su 70 aniversario, Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Física 35 (3-4) (2021), 87-96.
- Revista Mexicana de Física, Scientific Electronic Library Online, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
http://scielo.unam.mx/scielo.php/script_sci_serial/pid_0035-001X/lng_en/nrm_iso - M Sandoval Vallarta, Mexican Physical Society: Meeting in Queretaro Reported, Physics Today 5 (6) (1952), 30-31.
- Sociedad Mexicana de Física, SMF.mx.
https://smf.mx
Last Updated June 2023