Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium

In my talk I will first briefly review the application of galaxy clusters as tools to trace cosmic evolution. I will then discuss recent advances in the this field, as driven by the increasing quality of (mostly X-ray) observational data and by the much improved description of clusters through detailed cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. In this context I will present recent results on the analysis of such simulations aimed at calibrating galaxy clusters as precision tools for cosmology. Finally, I will devote the last part of my talk to highlight the potential that future large surveys of galaxy clusters could have to trace the growth of cosmic structures and to shed light on the Dark Matter and Dark Energy content of the Universe, and on the nature of primordial perturbations.