World News

Nobel Prize in Physics goes to trio of US-based quantum scientists

Oct 08, 2025

Copenhagen [Denmark], October 8: The Nobel Prize in Physics has been won by John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. All three scientists are affiliated with the University of California (UC), and Devoret also has a connection to Yale University. Devoret and Martinis are affiliated with UC Santa Barbara, north-west of Los Angeles, while Clarke works at UC Berkeley near San Francisco. Clarke, born in 1942, is British. Devoret, born in 1953, is French and Martinis, born in 1958, is from the United States. The three will share the 11 million Swedish kroner award ($1.17 million). "Quantum mechanics allows a particle to move straight through a barrier, using a process called tunnelling," the academy said in a press release announcing the award on Tuesday. A major question in physics is the maximum size of a system that can demonstrate quantum mechanical effects, the statement explained. This year's winners did experiments with an electrical circuit in which they "demonstrated both quantum mechanical tunnelling and quantised energy levels in a system big enough to be held in the hand," the statement said. (dpa)