These talks will be self-contained presentations of mathematical concepts and theorems. They are intended to be accessible to all mathematics students. Coffee, tea and drinks will be provided.

Most of the materials we use every day are formulated basically by expensive trial and error. However the advent of simple but powerful mathematical techniques and high performance computers has meant that we can increasingly use "molecular simulations" to characterise, understand and design the bulk properties of compounds from their basic chemical constituents.

In this talk we will compare the techniques of molecular dynamics, whereby interatomic interactions are turned into atomic motions via classical Newtonian mechanics, and Monte Carlo, where the interactions govern a long series of small random atom displacements. New Monte Carlo methods will be introduced, which allow us to predict the properties of complex compounds such as plastics and detergents, and enable us to distribute these large single calculations across many computers.