Three scientists, John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis, were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work on macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit, as announced by the Nobel committee. Their research has paved the way for advancements in quantum technology such as quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors.
Clarke conducted his research at the University of California-Berkeley, while Martinis worked at the University of California-Santa Barbara, and Devoret split his time between Yale University and the University of California-Santa Barbara. Devoret and Martinis have also been associated with Google’s Quantum A.I. Lab in recent years.
Upon receiving the prestigious award, Clarke expressed his surprise and emphasized the invaluable contributions of his colleagues, Devoret and Martinis, whom he described as brilliant individuals. He highlighted the impact of their work on everyday technology, citing the functionality of cell phones as an example.
The trio’s experiments in the mid-1980s with a superconductor-based electronic circuit demonstrated the influence of quantum mechanics on macroscopic objects, challenging traditional views of quantum behavior confined to the atomic and subatomic scales.
Olle Eriksson, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, emphasized the significance of quantum mechanics as the foundation of digital technology, noting its continuous evolution and practical applications in various technologies, including computer microchips.
The Nobel Prize in Physics, part of the prestigious awards recognizing outstanding achievements in various fields, carries a prize amount of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.6 million Cdn). The upcoming Nobel prizes for chemistry, literature, and peace will be awarded on separate days, with the economics prize announcement scheduled for October 13. The laureates will receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
The 2024 physics prize was awarded to British Canadian scientist Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto and American scientist John Hopfield of Princeton University for their contributions to machine learning within artificial neural networks, adding to the legacy of the physics prize, which has honored 229 laureates since 1901.
