The Institute looks back to a half-century history.

In 1946 its first predecessor, the Institute of Physics, Mathematics and Mechanics, the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR was established by a decree of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the Estonian SSR. In 1952 the Institute was reorganised into the Institute of Physics and Astronomy.  1973 – the Institute has been split into the Institute of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics, Tõravere (the present-day Tartu Observatory), and the Institute of Physics,  Tartu.

1975 marked the completion of the building of the laboratories of the Institute (the present-day main building of the Institute).

In   1975-92  the Chair of the Physics of Solids/Laser Optics of the University of Tartu was active at the Institute (more than 80 specialists trained). The years 1976-90 marked the activities of the special Scientific Council at the Institute which conferred the doctor’s degree on 28 and the Ph.D. on 77 persons.

1995 – Institute was given the status of a state scientific institution, which as a legal body of the public law was brought under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.

To realise the aims of the newly independent Estonia with regard to science and education, and to merge effectively  research and teaching, the Institute was  incorporated into the University of Tartu in 1997. It is now a highly autonomous research establishment – the Institute of Physics, University of Tartu. Thus, Institute has been rather dynamically reshaped according to the development of public demands and the development of the scientific atmosphere in the region.

The complete chronicle of Institute is available in Estonian here .