[1] The purpose of the institute is to promote the role of physics in research, education, industry and the community.
Every two years, the Institute organises a national congress, the latest being held in December 2024 in Melbourne.
[3] The institute has branches in each of the six Australian states, and topical groups in the following areas: 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:[18] 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.
These lectures were subsequently published as a book: Directions of Physics (Wiley, 1978 – H. Hora and J. Shepanski, eds.).