How do you mathematically model the weather, the forces at work in the nucleus of an atom or the fusion process inside the sun?

Some systems are too large, too small, too dangerous or just unrealistic to conduct observable experiments on. But the power of modern computational tools allows us to model their behaviour and experiment with their states.

Bristol maintains a strong link between theory and practical experiment in mathematics research and the department's leadership in scientific computing maintains this tradition.

In 2001, the department built a 160-CPU Beowulf cluster using off-the-shelf computers, open-source operating system software and fast network connections. Researchers all over the University benefitted, as the Department of Mathematics opened these facilities for any large-scale computational projects that applied for computing time.

Bristol has since devoted £2m to install a 2024-CPU IBM cluster supercomputer which will make Bristol a leading UK university in computational science research.