The Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute is one of the largest scientific centers in Russia, where both fundamental and applied research in the most important fields of modern physics and technology are actively carried out.

The Institute was founded in 1918 by Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, who then headed it for several decades. Since 1960, the Institute has been named after this outstanding scientist and organizer of science.

Until the end of December 2013 the Institute was an institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was a part of the Department of Physical Sciences. On December 30, 2013 the Institute was transferred to the Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations of Russia in accordance with the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2591-r.

On June 27, 2018, the Institute was transferred to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation by Government Order No. 1293-r.