DAMTP | Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

The Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics is one of the largest and strongest of its kind in Europe. The Department currently hosts approximately 140 Academic and Research Staff and around 160 PhD students at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, a purpose-built complex in Wilberforce Road, Cambridge.

Research in DAMTP is loosely organised into eight broad subject areas: Applied and Computational Analysis, Astrophysics, Geophysics, Fluid and Solid Mechanics, Mathematical Biology, Quantum Information, High Energy Physics and General Relativity and Cosmology. Many members of staff contribute to more than one area and this is regarded as a key factor in the continuing success of DAMTP. Research in each of the subject areas involves collaboration with strong groups nationally and internationally, and participation in numerous interdisciplinary projects and programmes.

News & Events

Scientists begin building AI for scientific discovery using tech behind ChatGPT

An international team of scientists, including from the University of Cambridge, have launched a new research collaboration that will leverage the same technology behind ChatGPT to build an AI-powered tool for scientific discovery.

Professor Julia Gog OBE wins Hedy Lamarr Prize 2023

Congratulations to Professor Julia Gog who has been awarded the Hedy Lamarr Prize for 2023.

Dark energy could be measured by studying the galaxy next door

Researchers have found a new way to measure dark energy – the mysterious force that makes up more than two-thirds of the universe and is responsible for its accelerating expansion – in our own cosmic backyard.

Featured paper by David Benisty, Anne-Christine Davis, and N. Wyn Evans.

Statement on the Research Activities of the GK Batchelor Laboratory: C.P. Caulfield, Head of DAMTP

2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize

Professor Anne-Christine Davis and Dr Sunny Vagnozzi have been awarded a 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize for their paper on the XENON1T anomaly, proposing novel ways to directly detect dark energy. Read more: https://www.staff.admin.cam.ac.uk/awards/dr-sunny-vagnozzi-and-prof-anne...

Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS)

DAMTP is proud to host the new Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS), led by Prof. Emily Shuckburgh (@Cambridge_CL and @CambridgeZero) as part of @SchmidtFutures Virtual Institute of Scientific Software (VISS).

‘Slushy’ magma ocean led to formation of the Moon’s crust

Scientists have shown how the freezing of a ‘slushy’ ocean of magma may be responsible for the composition of the Moon’s crust. The scientists, from the University of Cambridge and the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, including DAMTP's Jerome Neufeld, have proposed a new model of crystallisation, where crystals remained suspended in liquid magma over hundreds of millions of years as the lunar 'slush' froze and solidified.