Presidents
From 1899 to 1967, the APS president was elected as vice-president and automatically became president the next year. From 1967 through 1980, APS presidents were elected vice president-elect and automatically became vice-president and then president in successive years.
Since 1980, the APS president has been elected vice-president, becoming president-elect and then president in successive years.
APS presidents by year
1899–1925
- 1899 Henry Augustus Rowland
- 1901 Albert A. Michelson
- 1903 Arthur Gordon Webster
- 1905 Carl Barus
- 1907 Edward Leamington Nichols
- 1909 Henry Crew
- 1911 William Francis Magie
- 1913 Benjamin Osgood Peirce
- 1914 Ernest Merritt
- 1916 Robert Andrews Millikan
- 1918 Henry A. Bumstead
- 1919 Joseph Sweetman Ames
- 1921 Theodore Lyman
- 1923 Thomas Corwin Mendenhall
- 1925 Dayton Miller
1926–1950
- 1927 Karl Taylor Compton
- 1929 Henry Gale
- 1931 William Francis Gray Swann
- 1933 Paul D. Foote
- 1934 Arthur Compton
- 1935 Robert W. Wood
- 1936 Floyd K. Richtmyer
- 1937 Harrison M. Randall
- 1938 Lyman James Briggs
- 1939 John Torrence Tate Sr.
- 1940 John Zeleny
- 1941 George B. Pegram
- 1941 George Stewart
- 1942 Percy Williams Bridgman
- 1943 Albert W. Hull
- 1944 Arthur Jeffrey Dempster
- 1945 Harvey Fletcher
- 1946 Edward Condon
- 1947 Lee Alvin DuBridge
- 1948 J. Robert Oppenheimer
- 1949 Francis Wheeler Loomis
- 1950 Isidor Isaac Rabi
1951–1975
- 1951 Charles Christian Lauritsen
- 1952 John Hasbrouck Van Vleck
- 1953 Enrico Fermi
- 1954 H. Bethe
- 1955 Raymond Thayer Birge
- 1956 E. Wigner
- 1957 Henry DeWolf Smyth
- 1958 Jesse Beams
- 1959 George Uhlenbeck
- 1960 Victor Weisskopf
- 1961 Frederick Seitz
- 1962 William V. Houston
- 1963 John Harry Williams
- 1964 Robert Bacher
- 1965 Felix Bloch
- 1966 John Archibald Wheeler
- 1967 Charles H. Townes
- 1968 John Bardeen
- 1969 Luis Walter Alvarez
- 1970 Edward Mills Purcell
- 1971 Robert Serber
- 1972 Philip M. Morse
- 1973 Joseph Edward Mayer
- 1974 Pief Panofsky
- 1975 Chien-Shiung Wu
1976–2000
- 1976 William A. Fowler
- 1977 George Pake
- 1978 Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.
- 1979 Lewis M. Branscomb
- 1980 Herman Feshbach
- 1981 Arthur Leonard Schawlow
- 1982 Maurice Goldhaber
- 1983 Robert Marshak
- 1984 Mildred Dresselhaus
- 1985 Robert R. Wilson
- 1986 Sidney Drell
- 1987 Val Logsdon Fitch
- 1989 James A. Krumhansl
- 1990 Eugen Merzbacher
- 1991 Nicolaas Bloembergen
- 1992 Ernest M. Henley
- 1993 Donald N. Langenberg
- 1994 Burton Richter
- 1995 C. Kumar Patel
- 1996 J.R. Schrieffer
- 1997 D. Allan Bromley
- 1998 Andrew Sessler
- 1999 Jerome Isaac Friedman
- 2000 James S. Langer
2001–2023
- 2001 George Trilling
- 2002 William F. Brinkman
- 2003 Myriam Sarachik
- 2004 Helen Quinn
- 2005 Marvin L. Cohen
- 2006 John Hopfield
- 2007 Leo Kadanoff
- 2008 Arthur Bienenstock
- 2009 Cherry A. Murray
- 2010 Curtis Callan
- 2011 Barry Barish
- 2012 Robert L. Byer
- 2013 Michael S. Turner
- 2014 Malcolm R. Beasley
- 2015 Sam Aronson
- 2016 Homer Neal
- 2017 Laura Greene
- 2018 Roger Falcone
- 2019 David Gross
- 2020 Philip H. Bucksbaum
- 2021 Sylvester James Gates Jr.
- 2022 Frances Hellman
- 2023 Robert Rosner
- 2024 Young-Kee Kim
- 2025 John Doyle (2024 president-elect)
2026
- 2026 John (Brad) Marston (2024 vice president)