A well-deserved prize marking an important step in our understanding of nature, combining theoretical precision with practical achievement in quantum physics. The work of John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis represents a major advance in demonstrating quantum phenomena within engineered systems that can be precisely controlled.
Since the 1970s, John Clarke has developed ultra-sensitive devices known as SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices). These instruments enabled scientists to detect quantum effects in macroscopic electrical circuits, opening the way to study behaviors that had previously been observed only at the level of atoms and subatomic particles.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Michel Devoret led pioneering research to establish the theoretical and experimental framework for quantum circuits. His work showed how a superconducting circuit could behave as a quantum system, exhibiting phenomena such as quantum tunneling and energy quantization, making it possible to design and control quantum behavior on a visible scale.
In the early 2000s, John Martinis transformed these ideas into practical applications by building the first superconducting circuits that operated as “qubits,” the basic units of quantum computing. His work demonstrated that engineered systems could be used to perform controlled quantum operations.
Together, their contributions from Clarke’s measurements in the 1970s, through Devoret’s theoretical advances in the 1980s and 1990s, to Martinis’s practical implementations in the 2000s form a continuous chain of scientific progress that laid the foundation for today’s superconducting quantum computers.
