2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Honors Pioneers of Macroscopic Quantum Tunnelling

What Happened

Announced on October 7, 2025, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 was jointly awarded to John Clarke (UC Berkeley), Michel H. Devoret (Yale & UC Santa Barbara), and John M. Martinis (UC Santa Barbara).
They received the award “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”
The trio shares 11 million Swedish kronor (≈ $1.05 million USD / ₹10 crore).

John Clarke (Left), Michel H. Devoret (Middle), and John M. Martinis (Right)

In the mid-1980s their experiments at UC Berkeley using superconducting Josephson junctions showed that quantum effects can appear in macroscopic electrical circuits.
They demonstrated macroscopic quantum tunnelling (MQT) and energy quantisation, confirming that large-scale systems can behave like atoms under quantum laws.
Their findings laid the foundation for superconducting qubits, which power today’s quantum computers.

The discovery bridged classical and quantum physics, proving that quantum mechanics applies beyond microscopic scales.
Their work underpins technologies such as quantum computers, quantum sensors, and SQUID-based medical imaging.
Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis’ research has influenced companies like Google, where Martinis led the Quantum AI Lab until 2020.

John Clarke said: “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.”
Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said: “It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises.”

This year’s award follows the Nobel tradition of honoring breakthroughs in quantum theory, after earlier recognitions of Brian Josephson (1973) and Anthony Leggett (2003).
The physics prize was the second Nobel announced in 2025, following the Medicine Prize earlier that week.
The laureates will receive their medals and diplomas on December 10, 2025, in Stockholm.