Yale News

Michel Devoret woke up on the morning of Oct. 7 in Santa Barbara to unexpected news.

“I woke up at 7 in the morning, and then I saw this traffic on a cell phone and my computer, and I thought it was a joke,” Devoret said.

Devoret, a Yale professor emeritus in applied physics, had won the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside his colleagues John Clarke and John Martinis. In the 1980s, the trio worked in Clarke’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, to prove that quantum phenomena could be observed in matter on a larger scale.

Now based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Devoret also serves as chief scientist for quantum hardware at Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. The News spoke with Devoret about his career and lessons he has learned along the way.

After the Nobel Prize was announced, the media attention, Devoret said, was overwhelming.

“My profession is not rock star, it’s physicist,” Devoret said.

Still, he stressed how meaningful it was to see the field of quantum physics celebrated. The award, he said, reflected not only his work but also the contributions of countless researchers who helped build the discipline.

Devoret’s colleagues at Yale echoed that sentiment and emphasized Devoret’s value as a colleague.

“We both really enjoyed discussing physics and creating new ideas together,” Rob Schoelkopf, a professor of applied physics, said.

Steven Girvin, a professor of physics, wrote in an email to the News that Devoret was thoughtful about his research.

“He has a very clear sense of direction in his research knowing what directions are likely to be fruitful,” Girvin wrote.

Devoret said he was honored to receive the award alongside his colleagues, Clarke and Martinis.

“I am also very pleased to receive it with two other colleagues that I hold in great, great esteem,” Devoret said. “It’s very nice to be in the company of those exceptional individuals.”

Devoret’s experiences with science began when he was young. Throughout his childhood, in France, he was interested in learning about electronics, electrical circuits and computers, he said.

“I was exactly what you Americans call a ‘nerd,’” he said lightly.

Later on, in high school, he built rockets with a school club — a formative experience that he said taught him the foundations of research.

“When we were making the rockets,” he said, “we were rediscovering things that are well known in hydrodynamics and the chemistry of combustion. We were rediscovering these things by trial and error.”

It’s important to “rediscover” existing theories, he said, because without that foundation, it becomes harder to develop original ideas later on.

Though Devoret once considered studying biochemistry, he found the physical elements of physics work — even the smell of electric soldering — more engaging than working with the chemicals of biochemistry.

“In physics, you had a wealth of little gadgets,” he said. “You could do machining. It was a much, much more interesting environment from a tactile perspective.”

Devoret pursued his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the École nationale supérieure des télécommunications — since renamed Télécom Paris — before beginning his physics work as a graduate fellow at the University d’Orsay.

It was a standard path, he explained. The French education system wanted to ensure that undergraduate students pursue an applied undergraduate degree that would allow them to find employment even without a doctorate.

“A PhD is something really serious in the U.S.,” Devoret said. “It gives you intellectual freedom in a company. It remains unfortunately underappreciated in France.”

Still, Devoret enjoyed the work his PhD enabled him to do in France. After spending 25 years working in a French government lab, he moved to the United States, first joining Yale and later moving to Santa Barbara.

Lessons from a laureate

Over the decades, Devoret has distilled key lessons that have shaped his work and attitudes throughout his career.

One of the most important things in academia, he thinks, is the ability to work well in a group setting. His appreciation for teamwork began at age 18, when he worked as a counselor at a summer camp. He believes that experience informed the way he cooperates with colleagues and peers now.

Working in different countries and at different universities, Devoret has also learned to appreciate when his work is going well and when is the right time to move on to a new opportunity.

“You should never, never wait until things degrade to leave,” Devoret said.

As a professor, Devoret often advises graduate students to learn from their own mistakes and those of others, so they do not repeat them.

He also emphasizes attention to detail. He is a stickler for neat PowerPoints, he said, and correctly labeled graphs. Such precision, he said, conveys professionalism and lends credibility to scientific work.

His approach to research has always been very purposeful. Research should not be like a “hammer in search of a nail,” he explained — developing a tool and then looking for a problem to solve with it.

Instead, research should start with a specific problem and build a mechanism to solve it.

“The question would be, what kind of metallic object can I make that would make two pieces of wood be connected to each other?” he said.

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, he continues to study quantum sensing, exploring new analysis techniques that probe matter on an atomic level. In contrast, his work at Google focuses on advising the company as it moves into a quantum age.

As for the future of quantum technology, according to Devoret, “technology forecasting is even harder than forecasting the weather.”

Though he noted that some technologies have grown and died within a few decades, he believes that quantum technology has a “bright future.”

“This field that we started has interested a lot of people,” Devoret said, reflecting on his career. “They have made fantastic contributions.”

Devoret became a Yale professor in 2002.

Correction, Nov. 5: A previous version of this article misstated the date when Devoret was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was Oct. 7, not Sept. 30.