Institute for Computational Cosmology

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Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC)

Established	November 2002 (2002-11)
Purpose	Cosmology
Coordinates	54°46′01″N 1°34′30″W / 54.76694311327431°N 1.5749791848612393°W / 54.76694311327431; -1.5749791848612393
Director	Shaun Cole
Parent organization	Durham University
Website	icc.dur.ac.uk

The Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) is a research institute

The current director of the ICC is

Durham University's extragalactic astronomy group was founded in the late 1970s, and secured in 1984–5 with the appointments of Carlos Frenk, Richard Ellis, and Tom Shanks. A group researching theoretical cosmology grew steadily during the 1980s and 1990s, mainly funded by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). A dedicated building for theoretical cosmology was then funded through private donations, principally from alumnus Peter Ogden, and opened in 2002 by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.^[7] The group has grown in these new facilities, and the ICC now hosts more than 60 researchers, including theoretical and observational cosmologists, as well as astroparticle physicists.^[8] Although the ICC is strictly speaking a theoretical institute, theory and observations in cosmology are intimately interwoven. Uniquely amongst Durham University's Research Institutes, the ICC and IPPP are structurally integrated within an academic and teaching department, Physics. The physics department as a whole was awarded grade 5A in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise^[9] (RAE) carried out by the UK government, with the international excellence of research in Astronomy and Particle Physics specifically highlighted. The department's research in Space Science and Astrophysics was rated as number one in Europe and fourth in the world by Thomson Reuters from its Essential Science Indicators (1998–2008).^[10]

In November 2016, the ICC moved into the brand new Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics building, designed by

Supercomputer

The ICC's highest resolution simulations of the evolution of the Universe are performed on the Cosmology Machine (COSMA).

Outreach

A founding goal of the ICC is to "stimulate young people to aspire to be the scientists of tomorrow".^[14][15] A full-time outreach officer is employed to develop teaching materials that draw upon current research and coordinate a programme of activities in schools across the North East of England. The ICC has been involved in a number of outreach events aimed at communicating science to the general public, notably:

• The ICC's 3D short movie "Cosmic Origins",
  entertainment of a touring public exhibition that visited the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibitions^[20] 2009, 2010 and 2013, See Further^[21] 2010, the British Science Festival 2013,^[22] and Thailand's National Science and Technology Fair 2013.^[23][24]
• In 2015, the ICC collaborated on The World Machine project, the centrepiece of the 2015 Durham Lumiere festival This was a celebration of cosmology, projected onto the facade of Durham Cathedral.^{[citation needed]}
• In July 2016, the ICC hosted an exhibition titled Galaxy Makers: How to make a galaxy^[25] at the Royal Society 2016 Summer Exhibition.

References