Research activities in Mathematics are carried out within four principal thematic groups. Together these play an increasingly important role in global decisions in business, politics and management.
Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics research at Southampton is divided into five research areas: Computational applied mathematics, String theory and holography, Mathematics in biology and medicine, Relativistic astrophysics, and Superfluids and quantum effects. These cover such diverse topics as gravitational wave emission from black holes and neutron stars, the quantum behaviour of ultra cold gasses and the design of liquid crystal devices, metamaterials, solar cells and batteries.
Operational Research (OR) is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Its main research areas are Computational Optimisation, Game Theory, Healthcare Modelling, Revenue Management, Stochastic Programming and Simulation and Transportation and Supply Chain.
The Pure Mathematics Group at Southampton does research across a spectrum that bridges several areas of mathematics: Geometric Group Theory, Topology, Applied Topology, Noncommutative Geometry, Algebraic Geometry and Semi-Group Theory. It is home to the Centre for Geometry, Topology and Applications.
As part of the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, this group belongs to one of the largest groups of statisticians in the UK and were ranked second for 'research power' in the latest Research Assessment Exercise. Its main research areas are the design and analysis of experiments, statistical modelling and computation, biostatistics and survey methodology.