Quantum quirks in the palm of one’s hand! The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has just been awarded to a remarkable trio: French scientist Michel H. Devoret, British researcher John Clarke, and American physicist John M. Martinis. Their pioneering work has brought the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics out of the realm of the teeny-tiny and into the tangible world you could, quite literally, hold in your hand. A double celebration for French science, too—but we’ll get to that in a moment!
A Prize That Honors Fundamental Research (And National Pride)
On October 7, 2025, the Nobel Committee recognized Devoret, Clarke, and Martinis for their joint efforts and groundbreaking achievements in quantum mechanics. The award not only highlights France’s leading role in the field but also paves the way for the next generation of quantum technologies. And just to sweeten the deal for France, John M. Martinis also once counted himself among the alumni of the French scientific community.
Michel H. Devoret marks the seventh French winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics since 2007—and the eighteenth since the prize’s inception. As the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research emphasized, he “illustrates the excellence of French fundamental research.” The ministry proudly added:
“He will no doubt inspire many young people and encourage them to take up scientific studies by enthusiastically sharing the major scientific breakthroughs that have earned him this achievement.”
The Power of Collaboration: Taking Quantum Beyond the Subatomic
This shared Nobel Prize rewards a tightly-knit trio who, as early as 1984, demonstrated through a series of experiments that “the strange properties of the quantum world can be rendered concrete in a system large enough to hold in your hand.” The story takes us back forty years, to a laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. There, John Clarke was the director, Michel Devoret a postdoctoral researcher, and John M. Martinis a doctoral student.
As the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)—one of the main players in this area—explains, the Nobel particularly recognizes the trio’s pioneering work. They demonstrated the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling and the quantization of energy at the scale of a superconducting quantum circuit. These breakthroughs have become the cornerstone of advances toward quantum computers using such circuits.
An International Journey: From Paris-Saclay to Yale and California
This distinction continues “the remarkable line of French Nobel laureates in the quantum domain and underscores French excellence in this strategic discipline.” Devoret began his research with a thesis at Paris-Sud University (now Paris-Saclay University), in the Condensed Matter Physics Department at the CEA site in Saclay, just outside Paris. As the CEA points out, this is where “the fertile ground for his internationally recognized expertise began to form.”
Devoret then went on to do a postdoc in John Clarke’s lab in the United States, where he joined John M. Martinis. Together, they demonstrated the “macroscopic quantum effect” that now has them sharing a Nobel. When Devoret returned to France, he spent about fifteen years at the CEA as a research director before taking on a Professorship at Yale University in the early 2000s, where he continued his work. In 2007, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
France finds itself doubly rewarded, since the American laureate, John M. Martinis, also carried out part of his postdoctoral studies in France at the CEA-Paris Saclay!
The Making of a Quantum Laureate
Born in California, John M. Martinis graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 1980 and a PhD in Physics in 1987. During his doctoral studies, he focused on quantum behavior. His thesis supervisor was John Clarke, and during this period, he collaborated with Michel H. Devoret, then a postdoctoral researcher. Martinis then crossed the Atlantic to join the CEA in Saclay, France, for his first postdoctoral position. He later returned to the United States, where, for about twenty years, he has worked on developing a quantum computer…
