The 2025 Physics Nobel: John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis
A prize for a circuit you could hold
In October 2025 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize in Physics would go to three scientists: John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis. The citation reads: "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit." The prize is reported as 11 million Swedish kronor, shared by the three. Quantum computing fans had a lot to cheer, because the winning work is a direct ancestor of the chips used by Google and IBM today.
The plain English version: quantum rules were long thought to belong to single atoms and tiny particles. These three showed that a whole electrical circuit, big enough to see, can behave like one quantum object. That idea is what makes a superconducting qubit possible.
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What they actually did
According to reporting from The Quantum Insider on the announcement, the experiments took place in 1984 and 1985 at the University of California, Berkeley. The team built a circuit from superconductors separated by an ultra thin insulating layer, called a Josephson junction. When cooled to extremely low temperatures and measured, the circuit did two things. It jumped between energy states in discrete steps rather than smoothly, and it escaped a stable, zero voltage state by tunnelling, a quantum effect, rather than by being pushed over a barrier by heat. Reports describe a device about a centimeter across involving a huge number of paired electrons acting together.
Why does that matter for computing? A qubit needs two clean energy levels that can be controlled and read out. The 1980s result showed that such levels exist in an engineered circuit, and that you can see and steer quantum behavior on a chip. Cooling matters too, see how quantum computers are cooled.
John Clarke
Reported as born in 1942 in Cambridge, with a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1968, Clarke is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He supervised the work in which Martinis was a doctoral student and Devoret a postdoctoral researcher, according to reports of the announcement. Clarke is often described as a leader in superconducting devices and sensors.
Michel Devoret
Reported as born in Paris in 1953, with a PhD from Paris-Sud University in 1982, Devoret holds professorships at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Google's own announcement describes him as Chief Scientist of Quantum Hardware on its Quantum AI team. Google said its Quantum AI team was "incredibly proud to see Michel and John recognized for their pioneering work" and linked the prize to the foundation of its superconducting work, including the Willow chip. See Google Quantum AI and Willow.
John Martinis
Reported as born in 1958, with a PhD from UC Berkeley in 1987, Martinis is a professor at UC Santa Barbara. He previously led Google's quantum hardware effort, including the team behind the 2019 supremacy experiment, and reportedly co-founded the company Qolab in 2022, where he is chief technology officer. Qolab states a goal of reaching a million physical qubits using wafer scale chip manufacturing methods. That is a company target, not an achievement. For background on the 2019 claim see supremacy and advantage.
A quote worth keeping
Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, was quoted saying: "It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises." It is a good reminder that quantum computing rests on decades of patient lab work, not only on recent headlines.
What this prize does and does not mean
- It does mean the physical idea behind superconducting qubits has the highest scientific recognition.
- It does not mean a large, error corrected quantum computer exists. That is still a goal for the late 2020s and beyond. See error correction in 2026.
- It does not mean the laureates endorse any product, company or token.
Why it is exciting
Few fields get to say their foundations were honored with a Nobel while the machines are being built in the same decade. The same family of circuits is now being scaled by large companies and startups, and the mix of academic physics and engineering is exactly what the next steps need. Follow the science for the real signal, and treat any financial angle with caution.
Sources and further reading
- The Quantum Insider: Clarke, Devoret and Martinis win the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
- Google: Googler Michel Devoret awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Physics World: the 2025 Nobel Prize for physics
- Qolab: John Martinis biography
Reported as of 2026-10-09. Titles and roles change, so check each person's own organization. This page is education, not financial advice, and it is not an endorsement of any person, company or asset. The QNT memecoin is an independent community project with no link to any person or organization named here, including Quantinuum Ltd.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics?
John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.
Why does this prize matter for quantum computers?
Their circuit experiments in the 1980s showed that an engineered superconducting circuit can behave as a single quantum object, which is the basis of superconducting qubits used by companies such as Google and IBM.
Where do the laureates work now?
As reported, Clarke is at UC Berkeley, Devoret is at Yale, UC Santa Barbara and Google Quantum AI, and Martinis is at UC Santa Barbara and is CTO of Qolab. Check each institution for current titles.
Do the laureates have any link to the QNT memecoin?
No. The memecoin is an independent community project and has no connection to these scientists or to any lab or company.
Keep reading
- Superconducting Qubits Explained in Depth
How do superconducting qubits work? A clear look at circuits, microwave control, strengths, weaknesses and open questions in widely used quantum hardware. - Google Quantum AI: Willow, Error Correction and Quantum Echoes
What Google's Willow chip and the Quantum Echoes result showed, why below-threshold error correction matters, and what is still unproven. - The People Leading the Charge in Quantum Computing
Researchers and executives who shaped quantum computing: Neven, Gambetta, Hazra, Devoret, Martinis, Shor, Preskill, Nayak, O'Brien, Gidney, Aspect and more. - Quantum Computing Timeline: Key Milestones From 1981 to Today
A short history of quantum computing, from Feynman's 1981 idea and Shor's algorithm to cloud quantum computers and post-quantum standards.
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