Trio Wins Nobel Prize for Groundbreaking Quantum Physics Experiments

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U.S.-based scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for “experiments that revealed quantum physics in action.” Reuters reported. Their work laid the foundation for the next generation of digital technologies, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Oct. 7.

“My feelings are that I'm completely stunned. Of course, it had never occurred to me in any way that this might be the basis of a Nobel Prize,” Clarke told the Nobel press conference by phone. “I'm speaking on my cell phone, and I suspect that you are too, and one of the underlying reasons that the cell phone works is because of all this work.”

The trio’s pioneering research in the mid-1980s demonstrated that quantum mechanical effects, which are normally confined to the atomic and subatomic scale, could influence larger, everyday electronic systems. Their experiments with superconducting circuits demonstrated the observation and control of quantum phenomena in macroscopic devices.

“It is wonderful to be able 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 said its discoveries have paved the way for advances in quantum cryptography, computing, and sensing. Quantum computers, which harness the behavior of subatomic particles, promise to perform calculations far beyond the reach of traditional machines, potentially transforming fields from climate modeling to medicine.

Clarke, born in Britain, is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Devoret, born in France, teaches at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where Martinis is also a professor. Martinis, a former head of Google’s Quantum AI Lab, helped lead the team that in 2019 claimed “quantum supremacy.”

The three will share the 11 million Swedish crown ($1.2 million) prize.