Nobel Prize 2025 In Physics, A Scientific Collaboration With Francophone Roots

The announcement of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics brings special cause for celebration in the Bay Area's francophone community. The award recognizes three scientists: John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis; whose groundbreaking work in quantum mechanics has connected the University of California, Berkeley with Paris. 
John Clarke, studied at Cambridge University and has been at UC Berkeley since 1969, where he continues his work as a professor. Michel H. Devoret was born in Paris and earned his Ph.D. there before joining Clarke's laboratory at Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher in the 1980s. Today, Devoret is a professor at Yale University and also holds a position at UC Santa Barbara. John M. Martinis, who earned his doctorate from UC Berkeley and later worked with Google's quantum computing team, is now professor at UC Santa Barbara. 

The Nobel Committee honored these three scientists for demonstrating that quantum mechanical phenomena (behaviors typically observed only at the subatomic level) could be observed in systems large enough to see with the naked eye. Specifically, they proved the existence of quantum tunneling and energy quantization in macroscopic electrical circuits during experiments conducted in 1984 and 1985.

To appreciate the significance of their work, let’s look into what quantum tunneling is. In the quantum world, particles can pass through energy barriers that standard physics says should be impossible to accomplish. Imagine trying to roll a car in neutral over a hill that's too steep the car would normally roll back down. But in the quantum realm, that car could mysteriously appear on the other side of the hill without having enough energy to go over it. The laureates showed this wasn't just a microscopic curiosity but could happen in electrical circuits at a scale visible to humans!
Their experiments used superconducting circuits which are essentially materials cooled to extremely low temperatures where electrical current flows without resistance. They observed current "trapped" at zero voltage suddenly jumping to a nonzero voltage state through quantum tunneling. They also demonstrated that these systems could only absorb light at specific frequencies, proving that energy in these macroscopic systems was quantized existing only at fixed, discrete levels rather than continuously variable amounts.
The impact of this work extends far beyond the physics laboratory. As the Nobel Committee noted, virtually all advanced technology today relies on quantum mechanics, including mobile phones, cameras, and more. The laureates' discoveries helped establish the foundation for these technologies by proving that quantum effects could be reliably observed and controlled at relevant scales.
Most significantly, their work laid essential groundwork for quantum computing which is a technology that will revolutionize how we process information. Both Devoret and Martinis have continued advancing this field, with Devoret now serving as chief scientist in Google's quantum computing division and Martinis co-founding the quantum computing startup Qolab. Their early work on superconducting circuits directly enabled the development of superconducting qubits, one of the leading approaches to building quantum computers today.

This particular Nobel Prize exemplifies the best traditions of international scientific cooperation. Michel Devoret's journey from Paris to Berkeley, where he worked under John Clarke's supervision alongside graduate student John Martinis, created a research environment where fundamental discoveries could flourish. The Bay Area's francophone community can take particular pride in this Franco-American collaboration that has yielded such important results. When brilliant minds from different continents come together in pursuit of knowledge, they can illuminate new paths forward for all of humanity.