What Is the Centre for Mathematical Sciences Website?

cms.cam.ac.uk is the institutional website of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS) at the University of Cambridge. It is an information site about the Centre itself — its buildings, planning history, construction, library, and funding — rather than a course catalogue, admissions portal, or service platform. Use it if you want background on how the CMS site was planned and built, or to find contact and location details; look elsewhere (the University's main pages) for applying to study or for academic programme information.

What the site covers

The homepage and its navigation sit within the standard University of Cambridge site frame, so you will see general University links (Study at Cambridge, About the University, Research, Colleges & departments, and so on) alongside CMS-specific content. The CMS material itself is organised around the following areas:

• About and contacts — an introduction to the Centre, contact details, and a privacy policy.
• History and planning — a history of the CMS, extracts from the 1997 feasibility study by Edward Cullinan Architects, planning requirements and suggestions, and discussion of the site's location and surrounding architectural character.
• Design — environmental design notes (Part I and Part II), plus "looking from within" and "looking from without" perspectives on the buildings.
• Construction — approved plans and timetable, construction news, aerial photographs of the building site (including photos taken by Dr Barry Uscinski on 28 April 1999), the topping-out ceremony, and the groundbreaking ceremony.
• Buildings and phases — the different phases of the development, the Betty and Gordon Moore Library, the Faulkes Institute for Geometry, the Marit and Hans Rausing pavilion (Pavilions A, C and D), the Faulkes Gatehouse, and the Artesian Well in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.
• Library — library design, photographs, and new developments.
• Funding — funding and phasing, major benefactors, fundraising documents, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and press releases from 1996 and 1997.
• Miscellaneous — move-in dates, newsletters, a "picture of the week" archive (including CMS in Snow 1998), notes on some Cambridge mathematicians, and site safety information.

Plans and downloads

The site hosts a set of plan-related pages, including "Basements and Ground Floor", "Plans - downloads", and a "Site Plan". These are useful if you want to understand the layout of the CMS complex or the phasing of the development. The downloads page is the place to look for plan files rather than expecting them to be embedded in the narrative pages.

What it is not

This is not a prospectus. The page frame links out to the University's undergraduate and graduate admissions pages, fees and funding information, and course directories, but the CMS site itself does not present course listings or application steps. Similarly, it is not a live events or room-booking service; the news and events material is historical and documentary in character.

When to use it

• You are researching the architecture, planning, or construction history of the CMS and want primary material such as feasibility study extracts, approved plans, and construction photographs.
• You need the site plan or floor plans for orientation around the CMS buildings.
• You want to check contact details, the privacy policy, or background on the library and pavilions.
• You are tracing the fundraising history of the Centre through press releases and benefactor records.

If your goal is to apply for a mathematics course, find a current staff member, or book a room, start from the University's main pages or the relevant department instead — the CMS site is a record of the Centre and its buildings, not an active service front door.