Yale News

Michel Devoret, a Yale professor emeritus of applied physics, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in physics alongside John Clarke and John M. Martinis, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, for their work in quantum physics.

The team’s award-winning research was conducted in 1984 and 1985 at the University of California, Berkeley, when Devoret was a postdoctoral fellow and Martinis was a graduate student in Clarke’s research group. According to a Nobel Prize press release, the trio will receive 11 million Swedish kronor, which is equivalent to about $1.1 million, to be shared equally. 

“Michel’s work embodies the spirit of scientific discovery that defines Yale,” Michael Crair, the vice provost for research, wrote to the News. “His pioneering research and deep Yale collaborations have not only advanced the field of quantum science, but have also inspired generations of young scientists to explore the unknown with the same rigor and curiosity that have marked his extraordinary career.”

Devoret and his colleagues earned their Nobel Prize for experiments demonstrating quantum phenomena on a scale that was visible to the human eye. One phenomenon, quantum tunneling, describes the ability of a particle to go through a barrier rather than over it. The other, energy quantization, is the idea that subatomic particles only emit or absorb energy in discrete amounts.

Using a chip with a superconducting circuit, the team was able to visualize the quantum effects on a macroscopic scale — a feat that challenged traditional assumptions about quantum mechanics. 

“They answered the basic science question,” Sohrab Ismail-Beigi, the current chair of the Applied Physics department, said, “and in the process, they created an approach and a protocol and a way of doing the experiment that had a really big impact.”

Ismail-Beigi remarked that Devoret was a great colleague, who, in addition to being very knowledgeable about his subject, was good at explaining it to others.

Devoret joined Yale as a full professor in 2002, according to A. Douglas Stone, a professor of applied physics and the deputy director of the Yale Quantum Institute. Stone was chair of the applied physics department when Devoret joined. Since then, Devoret played a key role in developing the study of quantum technology at Yale alongside other physicists, such as Steven Girvin and Robert Schoelkopf.

“The three of them really pioneered the technology that’s now being used by Google and IBM and Amazon and other places,” Stone said. “The modern prototypes of quantum computers are being built with Yale technology.”

Physics department chair Sarah Demers, who served as the director of undergraduate studies from 2022 to 2024, recalled hearing students speak with enthusiasm about the opportunity to work with Devoret and Schoelkopf.

“Not only was it cutting edge research done by faculty members, but the students were absolutely along for the ride,” Demers said. “They opened up their labs — and still do in YQI — to a lot of undergraduate researchers.”

Devoret was also among the founding members of the Yale Quantum Institute, referred to as YQI, which was established in 2014 to create infrastructure for Yale’s research into quantum technology and computing, Stone said. Quantum research, he explained, is aimed at solving problems in computing that were once considered unsolvable. 

Countries around the world are racing to advance quantum research and technology today, Stone added, because of how important the work is. The United Nations has designated 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

“It’s a new kind of technology that goes beyond the transistors you have in your cell phone, and fiber optics and so on,” Stone said. “It might be qualitatively more powerful for both computing and sensing, for measuring very, very small changes, which can be very important for all sorts of things, for defense, for the Global Positioning System.”

Though Devoret’s Nobel-winning research dates back to the 1980s, Stone thought that the quantum technology “gold rush” of 2025 could be traced back to research like Devoret’s, which laid the groundwork for continuing research.

Currently, Devoret also serves as the chief scientist for quantum hardware at Google Quantum AI. Martinis, who previously worked on quantum technology at Google, has since cofounded Qolab in 2022, a quantum computing startup.

“Yale proudly cheers a trailblazer of a technology so consequential and far reaching that it may affect the life of every member of the planet,” University President Maurie McInnis said in a press release. “The work for which Professor Devoret is recognized, and his continued work over two decades with his Yale colleagues and others, helped launch a revolution in quantum mechanics.”

Devoret was born in Paris.

Jaeha Jang contributed reporting.