Optica Congratulates the Winners of the 2025 Nobel Physics Prize
About Optica
07 October 2025
Optica Congratulates the Winners of the 2025 Nobel Physics Prize
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, warmly congratulates the three recipients of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, John Clarke (University of California, Berkeley, USA), Michael H. Devoret (Yale University and University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) and John M. Martinis (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA).
The elegant experiments by Clarke, Devoret and Martinis in the mid-1980s, which established the existence of quantum tunneling at the macroscopic scale—in an object, as the team memorably wrote, “big enough to get one’s grubby fingers on”—have proved enormously fruitful in the succeeding years. In particular, they led to the insight that electronic Josephson junctions could act as engineered “artificial atoms” and potential quantum bits in superconducting circuits. The findings thus laid the groundwork for one family of potential large-scale quantum computers being actively explored and developed today, as well as for other applications of superconducting circuits in areas such as quantum cryptography and quantum sensing.
The Nobel Prize for these scientists’ fundamental and impactful discoveries in quantum science is particularly apt in 2025, the UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). Optica is proud to be a founding partner and supporter of IYQ, in recognition of the transformative potential of quantum technology—a potential eminently reflected in this year’s Physics Nobel.
About Optica
Optica, Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the Society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica's renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement. Discover more at: Optica.org
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