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John Martinis | Credit: UC Santa Barbara, Jeff Liang<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not every Tuesday morning that UCSB wakes up to a pair of new Nobel laureates. But that\u2019s exactly what happened this week, when physicists John M. Martinis and Michel H. Devoret were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing the honor with longtime collaborator John Clarke of UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized the trio \u201cfor the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit\u201d \u2014 a mouthful that, translated, means they managed to make quantum mechanics visible on a scale big enough to hold in your hand.<\/p>\n
John Martinis | Credit: UC Santa Barbara, Jeff Liang<\/p>\n
Their 1980s experiment, conducted in Berkeley\u2019s physics labs, proved that electric circuits made from superconductors could behave like a single quantum particle \u2014 showing the bizarre tunneling and quantized energy jumps that, until then, had been confined to the subatomic world (think Ant-Man). Those findings paved the way for quantum computers, quantum sensors, and even some of the technologies behind the smartphone.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Wednesday morning, UCSB\u2019s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost David Marshall read a statement from UCSB\u2019s new chancellor, Dennis Assanis, who called it \u201ca proud day for UC Santa Barbara and the UC community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of your work cannot be overstated,\u201d Assanis wrote. \u201cYour revolutionary work in quantum tunneling has been well known for over three decades. You\u2019ve paved the way for components found in everyday devices and major advancements in communication, computing, and sensing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the congratulations came a message with more political edge \u2014 a quote Marshall said the chancellor borrowed from George Washington: \u201cA flourishing state of the arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity. Publicly financed institutions are very cheap instruments of immense national benefit that serve to assist a spirit of discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a gentle but pointed reminder. Just last month, UCSB researchers warned that federal budget cuts under the Trump administration<\/a> could \u201ccripple\u201d long-term science, especially at public universities that rely on grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite this uncertainty, UCSB has long been known as a powerhouse for collaboration \u2014 where innovative minds come together to push the boundaries of science. \u201cYou are part of a tremendous legacy here at UC Santa Barbara,\u201d Chancellor Assanis said. \u201cA proud culture of interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and excellence built over decades.\u201d Joining the ranks of UCSB Nobel laureates, Martinis and Devorets bring the campus total from six to eight since 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n In agreement with Assanis, Martinis praised the joint effort, \u201call these people working together to develop science is what made [winning the Nobel Prize] possible.\u201d Even his wife was part of the effort in receiving the news \u2014 staying up late fielding congratulatory calls at 3 a.m. before waking him. \u201cShe did the right thing,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n After joining UCSB in 2004, Martinis led the university\u2019s Google Quantum AI partnership, where his lab built a 53-qubit processor that achieved \u201cquantum supremacy\u201d \u2014 solving a problem no conventional computer could handle. He later co-founded Qolab, a startup advancing the same technology.<\/p>\n \u201cAll this basic research that we did for decades made this happen,\u201d Martinis said at the press conference. \u201cHopefully not too many years in the future we can talk about the useful quantum computer that we have built.\u201d<\/p>\n Devoret\u2019s path took him from Paris to Berkeley and then to Yale, where he helped lead the university\u2019s Quantronics Group. He joined UCSB\u2019s faculty in 2024, continuing his research in superconducting qubits while serving as chief scientist for Google Quantum AI.<\/p>\n At the time of their Nobel-winning experiments, Clarke was Devoret\u2019s postdoctoral advisor and Martinis\u2019s graduate mentor. \u201cI could not imagine accepting the prize without the two of them,\u201d Clarke told the Nobel committee. \u201cTo put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The Nobel Prize, of course, is personal. But in Santa Barbara this week, it felt shared \u2014 a moment of pride not just for two physicists, but for a public university system that despite facing shifts in funding, still manages to change the world.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_10_07_09-05-59_Michel_Devoret-Large.jpeg\")
Michel Devoret | Credit: Harold Shapiro<\/p>\n
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