Nobel Prize News from Google: Michel Devore and John Martinis Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics
Today, Michel Devore, a lead scientist on Google’s Quantum AI team, and former Googler John Martinis were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. They join 2024 Nobel laureates Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, and Jeffrey Hinton as the five Nobel laureates Google has already celebrated.
Michel Devore, currently a Principal Scientist for Quantum Devices on Google’s Quantum AI team, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on macroscopic quantum effects. The prize is shared with John Martinis and John Clarke of the University of California, Berkeley.
Quantum Mechanics at the Macroscopic Level
The prize honors experiments conducted in the 1980s that revolutionized physics and technology. Michel Devore, John Martinis, and John Clarke have shown that the strange and counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics—previously thought to be confined to atoms and subatomic particles—can be observed and manipulated in macroscopic electrical circuits on a chip. They have created a superconducting circuit with no electrical resistance, a special element called a Josephson junction. This element is used to create and control quantum phenomena.
The foundation of superconducting quantum computers
For Google’s Quantum AI team, this Nobel Prize is not only a celebration of historical scientific achievements, but also a recognition of discoveries that laid the foundation for the current work on superconducting quantum computers. Josephson junctions are the basis of today’s superconducting quantum bits (qubits). Michel and John’s work has made possible such achievements as the development of Google’s Willow quantum chip and, in 2019, the completion of a quantum computer that was previously impossible for classical computers. This work also shapes the roadmap for future hardware development and advances quantum computing technology for solving difficult problems.
This award is a profound tribute to both the dedicated work of scientists and the power of fundamental research. Their discoveries continue to inspire the development of quantum technologies decades later.
