American Physical Society congratulates winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

Three APS members have received the prize for experiments with a handheld system that revealed quantum physics in action.

Today, the American Physical Society celebrates John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for sharing one of the highest honors in science — the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize was awarded “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.”

The laureates built an electronic circuit containing a Josephson junction, in which Cooper pairs of electrons tunnel between two superconductors separated by an insulating barrier. In this system, large enough to see with the naked eye, a single quantum state fills the entire circuit, allowing the particles to move through the barrier.

Now, macroscopic quantum tunneling has moved from basic physics to widespread application. It forms the basis of quantum circuits that power advanced computing; ultraprecise measurements in meteorology, neuroscience, and the geosciences; and specialized imaging technologies in ultra-low-field MRI machines. Looking ahead, such superconducting quantum circuits are one of several promising platforms for developing qubits — the basic unit of information for quantum computing.

All three laureates have been APS members for decades, as well as reviewers for the Physical Review journals. Clarke and Martinis are APS Fellows, and Clarke was the chair of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics. They join 89 other APS members as physics Nobel laureates.

Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis published their winning research in our Physical Review journals. In fact, since 2000, 30% of all research leading to the Nobel Prize in Physics has been published in Physical Review Letters. All articles are now available to read for free.

This recognition is especially timely as the world celebrates the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, a United Nations-designated, worldwide campaign to mark 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics. Supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. National Science Foundation, IBM, and the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique in France, this achievement is a reminder that international collaboration and sustained investment are essential to scientific and technological innovation.