A Birmingham quantum sensing company, spun out of the University of Birmingham, that builds gravity sensors to map what is hidden underground.
Delta g builds quantum sensors that measure tiny changes in gravity. Gravity pulls slightly differently over a tunnel, a void or a dense layer of rock, so measuring those changes can show what is hidden under the ground without digging. Its sensors use a method called atom interferometry: a cloud of cold atoms is dropped in a controlled way, and lasers are used to measure how it falls. Because the atoms behave the same way every time, they make very steady measurements. The company's own phrase for the idea is a kind of "Google Maps for the underground", and it hopes the data can be used by builders, utilities and defence teams who need to know what is beneath them.
The company was set up in 2023 by Professor Michael Holynski, Dr Jonathan Winch and Dr Andrew Lamb after about a decade of research at the University of Birmingham's quantum sensing group and the UK National Quantum Technologies Hub for Sensors and Timing. Dr Lamb describes the company as the first to take quantum gravity gradiometry from the laboratory into the field. Tony Lowe is chief executive. The team has mapped a tunnel under a road on the University of Birmingham campus in 2022, and the technology has also been tested in a cave and on a ship. In 2025 it won the Institute of Physics's qBIG prize for commercialising quantum technology.
Delta g is based in Birmingham, at Birmingham Research Park, in the Midlands. The company says it is working with UK government departments including the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Defence, as well as large civil engineering firms, and it has said it plans offices in North America and Southeast Asia in future. Its main product is a portable gravity gradiometer, with a smaller mobile unit nicknamed "the Rhino" used for real-world tests, and a planned tougher production version. A software platform that turns the sensor readings into maps and insight is also part of the plan.
The mission, as the company puts it, is to make quantum sensing practical and to reduce risk and cost for projects by showing what lies below the surface. Beyond the founders, the public record names Dr Ben Adams as one of the team who build and test the sensor. We found little detail on day-to-day culture. The company says it intends to grow its technical team. Because it has just come out of a university, the team is likely to be a mix of research scientists and practical engineers who enjoy fieldwork as well as lab work.
Jobs at a company like this include physicists who understand lasers and atoms, mechanical, electronics and software engineers who turn laboratory equipment into something that survives a building site, data scientists who work out what the readings mean, and people who talk to customers, run projects and manage the business. Physics, engineering, maths and computing are all useful starting points. The company's website is the best place to check what is open.
Website: www.delta-g.co.uk
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