diff --git a/singleuser/Dockerfile b/singleuser/Dockerfile
index 49b436b..1ad2418 100755
--- a/singleuser/Dockerfile
+++ b/singleuser/Dockerfile
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 ARG DOCKER_NOTEBOOK_IMAGE
+ARG DISPLAY
 FROM $DOCKER_NOTEBOOK_IMAGE
 ARG JUPYTERHUB_VERSION
 #any additional installations go here.
+RUN export DISPLAY=$DISPLAY
 
 USER root
 
@@ -12,19 +14,22 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     fonts-dejavu \
     tzdata \
     gfortran \
-    gcc && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    gcc
+# finish off with MPI dependencies
+RUN sudo apt-get install mpich libmpich-dev && \
+     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 USER jovyan
 
 RUN python3 -m pip install --no-cache jupyterhub==$JUPYTERHUB_VERSION nbresuse 
 RUN conda install -c conda-forge fenics
 
-RUN python3 -m pip install ipyparallel
+RUN python3 -m pip install ipyparallel mpi4py
 RUN ipython profile create --parallel --profile=mpi
 RUN echo "c.IPClusterEngines.engine_launcher_class = 'MPIEngineSetLauncher'" >> /home/jovyan/.ipython/profile_mpi/ipcluster_config.py
 
-RUN conda create --quiet --yes -p $CONDA_DIR/envs/python2 python=2.7 ipython ipykernel kernda numpy pandas matplotlib ipywidgets yaml
+RUN conda create --quiet --yes -p $CONDA_DIR/envs/python2 python=2.7 ipython ipykernel kernda numpy pandas matplotlib ipywidgets yaml ipyparallel mpi4py 
+RUN /opt/conda/envs/python2/bin/ipython profile create --parallel --profile=mpi
 
 USER root
 
@@ -65,4 +70,3 @@ ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/lib/R/lib:/lib:/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/l
 
 USER jovyan
 RUN echo "export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim" >> /home/jovyan/.bashrc
-RUN echo "source /home/jovyan/work/.bash_custom" >> /home/jovyan/.bashrc