The timeline below highlights some of the major events in the ITP’s history.
| 1978 | Approved by Vice-premier Xiao-Ping Deng and other central government leaders, the ITP was established in Beijing. The founding director was Professor Huan-Wu Peng. |
| 1981 | The ITP was selected as one of the first institutions to provide PhD program in China. |
| 1984 | The ITP was selected as one of the first institutions to provide postdoctoral program in China. |
| 1985 | The ITP became one of the first two “open” institutions to host visiting scientists around the world. |
| 1993 | The ITP was selected as a Center of Excellence by The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS-UNESCO) Associate-ship Scheme in the South for its excellent research work and forthcoming attitude in the cooperation. |
| 1998 | The ITP became one of the first twelve institutes selected from more than one hundred institutes in the CAS to implement the Pilot Project of the Knowledge Innovation Program (PPKIP). |
| 2002 | The Interdisciplinary Center of Theoretical Studies (ICTS) was set up at the ITP to promote the interdisciplinary studies in China. |
| 2004 | The ITP was selected by the CAS as one of the first four research institutes to be evaluated internationally. The panel of the evaluation experts concluded that the ITP “is a strikingly active and productive theoretical physics research institute. The research conducted, which currently employs is visible internationally, deals with the forefront of contemporary problems and, in its areas of specialization, is competitive with the research conducted in the best institutes and universities worldwide. The quality and the direction of research are excellent.” |
| 2005 | The International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the ITP was established; the members include: Edouard Brezin, Kuang-Chao Chou (Guang-Zhao Zhou), David Gross (Chair), Terence Hwa, Zhong-Can Ou-Yang, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, Das Sarma Sankar, Henry Tye, Yue-Liang Wu, Shing-Tung Yau, Peter Zoller, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Joe Silk and Xiao-Gang Wen. |
| 2006 | The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China (KITPC) at the CAS was established at the ITP. It was the first Kavli Institute in Asia. |
| 2008 | The Key Laboratory of the Frontier in Theoretical Physics (KLFTP) at the CAS was set up at the ITP. |
| 2011 | The KLFTP was promoted as State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (SKLTP) by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. |
| 2013 | The ITP was evaluated by an International Expert Diagnostic Assessment Team which concluded that “The ITP’s mission is unique among China’s physics-based institutes in that it does not have a narrow field focus and its researchers are free to choose their problem areas. It is China’s principal platform for developing the cross-field and cross-disciplinary connections that are likely to characterize many of the most important advances in 21st-century science.” |
| 2016 | Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Huan-Wu Peng Innovation Research Center for Theoretical Physics (PCTP) was established at the ITP, in memorial of the founding director of the ITP. |
| 2019 | The ITP was selected as one of the Demonstration Bases for Cultivating Innovative Talents by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. |
| 2019 | the Joint Laboratory of Advanced Computing for Theoretical Physics was established by the ITP and the Dawning Information Industry Cooperation (Sugon). |