The center was established at Yarmouk University subsequent to a decision taken by the Higher Education Council on Sept. 10, 1989. The main objective of the center is to promote research in Physics both locally and regionally and to improve scientific knowledge in this science with a view to serve the purposes of development and technological progress.

On Oct. 31, 1989 an agreement was signed between  Yarmouk University and the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (The Abdus Salam ICTP), in Trieste-Italy, to make Yarmouk Center one of the ten ICTP Affiliated Centers (ICACs) in Asia and Africa that are linked to The Abdus Salam ICTP, and was termed ICAC/Irbid.

The Center is keen on forging strong relations with Yarmouk University Department of Physics and with Physics departments in other Jordanian Universities. One of its major objectives is to support and develop local and regional research teams in the fields of computational physics, magnetism and others.