5-7 June 2025
Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal
5-7 June 2025
Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal

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This conference is the fifth in the series following the first four, which were held at Trinity College, Cambridge UK in 2014, Pöllau, Austria in 2016, San Sebastian, Spain in 2018 and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in 2022. It is formally overseen by an International Advisory Committee which is recognised by the Institute of Physics (IOP) and the European Physical Society (EPS).

The aim of these conferences is to bring together physicists interested in the history of their subject and professional historians of science in the belief that proponents of the two disciplines, with their different perceptions and methodologies, can benefit from interaction and discourse.

Student attendance and participation will be encouraged in the firm belief that a study of the history of the subject can inspire future generations by informing them about the lives and work of past scientists, and also facilitate a better understanding of topics that present conceptual problems today just as they did to their discoverers.

The leading theme of the 5ICHoP-2025 is "PHYSICS OF THE EARLY DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY", aligning with the United Nations General Assembly declaration that 2025 will be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), celebrating the centenary of the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics developed by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan and of the wave-mechanics formulation by Erwin Schrödinger.

Presentations on any subject related to the history of physics are also welcome including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • The history of institutions, academies, and scientific societies

  • The roads to and from applied physics into technology

  • Revisitation of classic or overlooked papers

  • Pedagogical and research traditions in physics

  • Historic perspectives of gender and physics

  • New historiographical approaches in the history of physics

  • Digital humanities and the history of physics