2025 Nobel Prizes Awarded To UCSB Professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret
Alissa Orozco
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Two professors from the University of California, Santa Barbara have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their incredible work and research in quantum physics.
UC Santa Barbara’s John Martinis and Michel Devoret were selected, alongside UC Berkeley physicist John Clarke. The three minds are credited with “the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.” Developing a series of experiments in 1984 and 1985, they built an electronic circuit of superconducting materials – each separated by a thin layer of insulative material, creating what is known as a Josephson junction.
“What a profound thrill, and a moment of exceptional pride for our campus, to congratulate our UC Santa Barbara professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret on winning this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, alongside UC Berkeley’s John Clarke,” said UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis.
The physicists’ findings helped to create major technology advancements, such as the creation of cellphones, data storage devices and LED lighting.
John Martinis graduated with his doctorate in physics from the UC Berkeley in 1987 under the guidance of Clarke, before coming to UC Santa Barbara in 2004. In 2014, Google Quantum AI hired Martinis and his team to build a quantum computer to take on a problem considered too difficult for normal computers. He joined Australian startup Silicon Quantum Computing in 2020 before co-founding the quantum computing company Qolab, where he serves as Chief Technology Officer.
Devoret graduated from the University of Paris, Orsay in 1982 with a doctorate in condensed matter physics, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Clarke’s lab at UC Berkeley from 1982-1984. He served as the director of research, head of the Quantronics Group at CEA-Saclay in France from 1995-2002, then went on to teach applied physics at Yale University from 2002-2024. Devoret ultimately joined faculty at UC Santa Barbara and is the Chief Scientist at Google Quantum AI.
“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises,” said Olle Erikkson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. “It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.”
Dr. Martinis shared his thinking with students before a UCSB news conference about the award.
“It has been a long time, it’s not going to happen, so this year I just forgot about it more or less,” said Martinis.
Martinis said his wife had stayed up late reading a book when the phone starting ringing with the news”
“She let me sleep in until 5:30 because she knows I need my sleep,” said Martinis.
He also said a math teacher when he was young deserves some credit for his success.
“The mathematics teacher in high school, Mr. Iverson was great because he taught, you know, a nice advanced calculus, the thing he did for me; he wouldn’t give me credit unless I organized my material, he forced me to be very methodical and logical in how I solved my mathematical problems.”
The winners will share a cash prize and be recognized at a ceremony in Sweden on Dec. 10.
For more information visit https://www.science.ucsb.edu and https://www.nobelprize.org/all-nobel-prizes-2025/
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