Clarke, Devoret, Martinis win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

New Delhi, Oct 7: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics to John Clarke (University of California, Berkeley), Michel H Devoret (Yale University and UC Santa Barbara), and John M Martinis (UC Santa Barbara) “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”

The Academy said the three scientists demonstrated that quantum effects, typically seen only at the atomic scale, can occur in systems large enough to be held in the hand. Their groundbreaking experiments in the mid-1980s used superconducting circuits known as Josephson junctions, showing that such systems could display quantum tunnelling and discrete energy levels, hallmarks of quantum behaviour.

“It is wonderful to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises,” said Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. “It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.” The Academy noted that its findings laid the foundation for emerging quantum technologies, including quantum computers, sensors, and cryptography systems.