Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to 3 scientists for quantum mechanical tunneling
Scientists John Clark, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization,” the award-giving body said Tuesday.
“This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics provides opportunities to develop the next generation of quantum technologies, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers and quantum sensors,” said a statement accompanying the prize announcement from Stockholm.
Clark conducted his research at the University of California-Berkeley, Martins at the University of California-Santa Barbara; And also at Yale University and the University of California-Santa Barbara. Devoret and Martinis have been affiliated with Google Quantum AI in recent years.
“To put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life,” Clark said upon receiving the call confirming the honor. He called colleagues Devoret and Martins “fantastic people” whose contributions were “just enormous.”
The Nobel Prizes, which are also handed out for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, literature and peace, come with prize money of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.6 million CDN).
The prize for physics will be awarded on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics award will be announced on October 13.
The Nobel Prizes are presented to the laureates on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
Since 1901, the Physics Prize has been awarded with 229 prizes. British Canadian scientist Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto and American scientist John Hopfield from Princeton University were honored with the 2024 Physics Prize for their inventions that enable machine learning within artificial neural networks.
