Michel Devoret | |
|---|---|
 Devoret in 2017 | |
| Born | Michel Henri Devoret 1953 (age 71–72) Paris, France |
| Education | Télécom Paris (Dipl.Ing.) University of Orsay (DEA,PhD) |
| Known for | Transmon Fluxonium Quantum limited amplification |
| Awards | Ampère Prize (1991) John Bell Prize (2013) Fritz London Memorial Prize (2014) Micius Quantum Prize (2021) Comstock Prize in Physics (2024) Nobel Prize in Physics (2025) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Condensed matter physics Quantum information Quantum measurements |
| Institutions | Collège de France Yale University University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Thesis | Mise en évidence d'un ordre orientationnel de type vitreux dans l'hydrogène et le deutérium solides[1] (1982) |
| Doctoral advisor | Neil S. Sullivan |
| Doctoral students | Vincent Bouchiat[2] |
Michel Henri Devoret[3] (French pronunciation:[miʃɛldəvɔʁɛ]; born 1953) is a French-Americanphysicist.[4][5] He is Professor of Physics at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara,[6][7] and Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics atYale University.[8] He serves as the Chief Scientist for Quantum Hardware atGoogle Quantum AI.[9] He is known for the development of varioussuperconducting quantum computing architectures, including the quantronium, thetransmon, and thefluxonium.
He shared the 2025Nobel Prize in Physics withJohn Clarke andJohn M. Martinis for their joint work onmacroscopic quantum phenomena insuperconducting circuits.[10]
Devoret was born inParis, France, in 1953.[11][12]
Devoret graduated with anengineer's degree in telecommunications fromÉcole nationale supérieure des télécommunications (ENST, now known asTélécom Paris) in Paris in 1975.[13][11] He obtained a graduate diploma (DEA) inquantum optics from theUniversity of Orsay (present-dayParis-Saclay University), followed by a doctorate incondensed matter physics in 1982.[11][13] He performed his doctoral research atCEA Saclay in the group ofAnatole Abragam,[14][15] under the supervision ofNeil S. Sullivan.[15]
Devoret worked as apostdoctoral researcher inJohn Clarke's group at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, from 1982 to 1984.[11] Together, withJohn M. Martinis, a graduate student at the time, they demonstrated for the first time thequantized energy levels of aJosephson junction in 1985.[11][16]
Devoret then returned to France and founded the Quantronics group at the Orme des Merisiers laboratory of CEA Saclay together withDaniel Esteve [fr] and Cristian Urbina. The group measured the traversal time of tunnelling, invented an electron pump, observed the charge of Cooper pairs directly, and developed a type ofqubit dubbedquantronium. They also observed theRamsey fringes of quantronium.[11][17][18]
Devoret became a professor atYale University in 2002. At Yale University,Steven Girvin,Robert J. Schoelkopf, and Devoret devised a type of superconductingcharge qubit called thetransmon.[19][20] In 2009, Devoret also pioneeredfluxonium[21], which can be understood as a special type offlux qubit. In 2010, he also developed a microwavequantum limited amplifier for qubit readout and sensing.[22][23]
Devoret was appointed to theCollège de France in 2007 and resigned in 2013.[11][17] In 2023, he was named the Chief Scientist for Hardware atGoogle Quantum AI.[9] In 2024, he moved to theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara to serve as Professor of Physics.[6]
Devoret was elected member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003,[3] of theFrench Academy of Sciences in 2007[24] and of theNational Academy of Sciences in 2023.[4] In 2008, he was invested as a Knight of theLegion of Honour.[25]
Devoret and Esteve were awarded theAmpère Prize by the French Academy of Science in 1991.[26] In 1995, Devoret received theDescartes-Huygens Prize from theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science.[27] Devoret, Esteve,Yasunobu Nakamura and Johan Mooj were awarded theEurophysics-Agilent Prize by theEuropean Physical Society in 2004.[28] In 2013, Devoret and Schoelkopf were awarded with theJohn Stewart Bell Prize for "Fundamental and pioneering experimental advances in entangling superconducting qubits and microwave photons, and their application to quantum information processing."[29]
In 2014, Devoret shared theFritz London Memorial Prize with Martinis and Schoelkopf.[30] TheMicius Quantum Prize was jointly awarded in 2021 to Devoret, Clarke and Nakamura.[31] In 2016, Devoret was awarded the Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize.[13]
The 2024Comstock Prize in Physics was awarded to Devoret and Schoelkopf.[32] In 2025 Devoret, Clarke and Martinis were awarded theNobel Prize in Physics for their joint discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling andenergy quantisation in an electric circuit.[10]
