The Centre for the Study of the Evolution of the Terrestrial Planets will benefit students, international researchers and companies in need of world-class geochemical analysis.

Professor Mike Benton, head of Earth Sciences at Bristol, said: "We work with undergraduates, academics in some 20 countries, industrialists, schoolchildren and the general public. The new centre will be invaluable in our dealings with all of these, and should lead to significant advances in our understanding of the Earth and adjacent planets."

The two-storey centre will boost the already formidable reputation of the University's Earth Sciences department - one of only three in the UK to be awarded the top, five-star rating in the most recent national assessment of universities' research quality.

Most of the money for the centre, and for the refurbishment and equipping of associated laboratories, came from the Joint Infrastructure Fund - a partnership between the Wellcome Trust, the Office of Science and Technology and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The centre is located in the Inner Court behind the Wills Memorial Building (enter via main door of Wills Memorial Building).