Overview

• John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy quantization in an electrical circuit.
• Their 1984–85 Josephson‑junction experiments showed that a millimeter‑scale superconducting circuit can behave as a single quantum system with discrete energy levels.
• Officials and experts say the results underpin superconducting quantum computers used by firms such as Google and IBM, quantum cryptography and quantum sensors, including SQUID magnetometers used in medical diagnostics like magnetocardiography.
• The SwedisSwedish Academy announced the award in Stockholm; the prize carries 11 million Swedish kronor, and the laureates hold posts at UC Berkeley, Yale and UC Santa Barbara.
• A day earlier, the medicine prize went to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance that inform therapies for autoimmune disease and transplant acceptance.