Nobel Prize for physics goes to 3 scientists for discoveries in quantum
mechanical tunneling
[October 07, 2025]
By KOSTYA
MANENKOV and MIKE CORDER
STOCKHOLM
(AP) — John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis won the Nobel
Prize in Physics on Tuesday for research into quantum mechanical
tunneling.
Clarke conducted his research at the University of California, Berkeley;
Martinis at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Devoret at
Yale and also at the University of California, Santa Barbara. |
Photos of John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis are
pictured on a screen after they were announced as winners of the Nobel
Prize in Physics, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in
Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News
Agency via AP) |
|
“To put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life,” Clarke told
reporters at the announcement by phone after being told of his
win.
He paid tribute to the other two laureates, saying that “their
contributions are just overwhelming."
“Our discovery in some ways is the basis of quantum computing.
Exactly at this moment where this fits in is not entirely clear
to me.”
Speaking from his cellphone, Clarke said: “One of the underlying
reasons that cellphones work is because of all this work’’
The Nobel committee said that the laureates' work provides
opportunities to develop “the next generation of quantum
technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers,
and quantum sensors.”
“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that
century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises.
It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the
foundation of all digital technology,” said Olle Eriksson, Chair
of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
It is the 119th time the prize has been awarded. Last year,
artificial intelligence pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey
Hinton won the physics prize for helping create the building
blocks of machine learning.
On Monday, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon
Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for
discoveries about how the immune system knows to attack germs
and not our bodies.
Nobel announcements continue with the chemistry prize on
Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will
be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics on
Oct. 13.
The award ceremony will be held Dec. 10, the anniversary of the
1896 death of Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist
and the inventor of dynamite who founded the prizes.
The prizes carry priceless prestige and a cash award of 11
million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million).
___
Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights
reserved |
|
|
