About Us

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation The 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 group was founded by Dennis Sciama in 1961, and is currently headed by Professor Stephen Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS. 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,
cosmology,
topological defects,
supergravity,
string & membrane theories,
numerical relativity and
Regge calculus.

In addition, the group houses and operates COSMOS, the UK national cosmology supercomputer.

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