Applied Mathematicians at Bristol work on Fluids and Materials, Mathematical Physics, and Quantum Information. The School is also a leader in scientific computing and has helped ensure a significant investment by the University in high-performance computing.

• Fluids and materials
• Mathematical physics
• Quantum information

The Applied Mathematics group encourages close collaboration with other departments such as biochemistry, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, veterinary sciences and in areas such as complexity, composites, environment,nanomaterials and nanoscience.

We also work with industry. For example, materials science researchers have worked with Hewlett Packard to mathematically model bi-stable liquid crystal displays (LCDs) which would require a voltage to change their display state but not to maintain it.

Study of drop formation is led by Prof. Jens Eggers

Fluid dynamics

Bristol has a long and illustrious history in fluid dynamics, starting in the 1940s when the group was established by Prof. Leslie Howarth. The fluids group has seen great successes, with the work of Professors Philip Drazin, Howell Peregrine, David Evans and many others. Today, it continues to grow with new staff members working in contact lines, drops, vortices and non-Newtonian fluids.

The increasing miniaturisation of microprocessors according to Moore's Law means that in 10 to 15 years chips will be operating at the quantum level even at room temperature. The transistors that make up a processor will be not much larger than molecules and the movement of individual electrons will be the basis of computation.

Microlaser mode, studied by the quantum chaos group and featured in Physical Review A.

Quantum mechanics

Bristol is a world leader in quantum mathematics. The research covers quantum chaos, quantum information andrandom matrix theory and will be used, for example, to model the complex quantum relationships in tomorrow's computer chips, microlasers and nanoscale systems. 

New results in dynamical systems, meanwhile, have offered insight into previously hopeless problems. Researchers at Bristol have been able to explain how the giant planets trapped their moons, and offer solutions for mixing fluids at the scales of microns.