skip to content
 

About Us

Cosmic Microwave Background RadiationThe Relativity & Gravitation Group is part of the Department of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics, which is part of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. The activities of the GR group are closely linked with the Stephen Hawking Centre for Theoretical Cosmology (CTC), with which a number of webpages are shared: www.ctc.cam.ac.uk. CTC supports related research activities on cosmology and black holes, including running conferences and topical workshops and supporting visitors and postdoctoral fellowships.

The group was founded in 1961 by Dennis Sciama in 1961 and led for over twenty years by Stephen Hawking, then by Gary Gibbons and the current head is Paul Shellard. Since 2000, we have been housed in The Märit and Hans Rausing Pavilion (Pavilion B) of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

Areas of research within the group include:

  • quantum gravity,
  • black holes,
  • gravitational waves,
  • cosmology,
  • inflation,
  • topological defects,
  • cosmic microwave background,
  • supergravity,
  • string & membrane theories,
  • numerical relativity

In addition, the group houses and operates the COSMOS supercomputer.

Please see our public pages which attempt to describe our work in non-technical terms.