University College London is launching the David Potter Institute for Quantum Information and Spacetime, backed by an £8 million gift from the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. The new research center will unite physicists to test whether spacetime itself is governed by quantum theory through advanced experimental sensors.
Theoretical physics has spent generations working entirely on chalkboards. Now, a multi-million-pound investment is about to drag one of the discipline’s deepest mysteries out of the abstract and into the laboratory.
The £8 Million Gift and the Core Question of Spacetime
UCL is establishing an interdisciplinary research hub funded by an £8 million gift from the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. Named the David Potter Institute for Quantum Information and Spacetime, the center brings together experts in quantum information theory, gravity, and high-energy physics inside the university’s Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
The institute aims to answer a foundational question in modern physics: how to reconcile quantum mechanics—which describes nature at its smallest scales—with gravity and its description of spacetime. While scientists have made vast strides in both domains, scientists have made progress in both fields, but do not yet know whether spacetime itself is quantum.
While many physicists argue that Einstein’s theory of gravity must be quantized to fit inside quantum frameworks, Professor Jonathan Oppenheim and his colleagues are pursuing a different hypothesis: that spacetime remains classical and entirely ungoverned by quantum mechanics. The new institute is designed to combine theoretical work with actual experiments built to test these competing claims.
Quantum Sensors, Interferometers, and Testing Gravity
To move past pure theory, researchers at the institute plan to develop high-precision quantum sensors capable of measuring minute forces. According to researchers plan to develop quantum sensors capable of measuring small forces at high levels of precision, many of the experimental setups have already undergone trial phases at the university.
One prominent experimental approach utilizes an interferometer to levitate nanospheres. The method attempts to place a small mass into a quantum superposition—effectively existing as if it were in two places at once—before observing how gravity interacts with it.
Under UCL’s experimental framework, a quantum spacetime structure should enable gravity to entangle two distinct particles, linking their behaviors in ways that classical physics cannot account for. If spacetime proves to be strictly classical, that particle entanglement will not occur.
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Biomedical Senses
Beyond fundamental physics, the institute intends to bridge its quantum sensing research with practical real-world applications. Researchers will collaborate directly with the Quantum Biomedical Sensing Research Hub, known as Q-BIOMED, which is jointly led by UCL and the University of Cambridge.
That partnership will investigate advanced sensing technologies tailored for healthcare settings, including methods that could yield more sensitive detection capabilities for individual cells, molecules, and biological processes within the human body. The institute also expects its sensing program to drive the creation of spin-out technologies based on ongoing laboratory discoveries.
Academic participants will span across multiple departments, drawing scholars and students from mathematics, computer science, philosophy, and science and technology studies. The facility will host visiting scientists, student researchers, and regular academic workshops.
Honoring the Scientific and Philanthropic Legacy of Dr. David Potter CBE
The funding gift sustains the scientific and philanthropic endeavors of Dr. David Potter CBE, who died in June 2026. Potter studied natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, earned a doctorate in mathematical physics from Imperial College London, and taught physics at the University of London and the University of California.
Leaving academia in 1980, Potter founded Psion, a pioneering firm that developed what UCL describes as the first handheld computer for personal use, named The Organiser. He later spearheaded the formation of Symbian Limited alongside tech giants Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Matsushita.
“The new Potter Institute is a vehicle through which we can help provide the academic freedom to pursue big ideas, the impact of which may shape the future in ways we cannot yet predict.”
Professors Jonathan Oppenheim and Sougato Bose will serve as co-directors of the new institute, while Professor Peter Barker will oversee its experimental program.
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