Michel Devoret
Michel Devoret | |
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Devoret in 2025 | |
| Born | Michel Henri Devoret 5 March 1953 Paris, France |
| Education |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Mise en évidence d'un ordre orientationnel de type vitreux dans l'hydrogène et le deutérium solides (1982) |
| Neil S. Sullivan | |
Doctoral students | Vincent Bouchiat[1] |
Michel Henri Devoret (French: [miʃɛl dəvɔʁɛ]; born 5 March 1953)[2] is a French–American physicist. He is Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara,[3][4] and Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Yale University.[5] He serves as the Chief Scientist for Quantum Hardware at Google Quantum AI.[6] He is known for the development of various superconducting quantum computing architectures, including the quantronium, the transmon, and the fluxonium.
Devoret shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Clarke and John M. Martinis for their joint work on macroscopic quantum phenomena in superconducting circuits.[7]
Early life and education
[edit]Michel Henri Devoret was born on 5 March 1953 in Paris.[8][9] He has stated that his parents were of Jewish background, even though they were not religious.[10]
Devoret graduated with an engineer's degree in 1975 from École nationale supérieure des télécommunications (now Télécom Paris). He then obtained a DEA (Diplôme d'études approfondies) in Quantum Optics in 1976, followed by a Ph.D. in Quantum Condensed Matter Physics in 1982, both from the University of Orsay (now Paris-Saclay University).[11][8] He performed his doctoral research at CEA Saclay in the group of Anatole Abragam,[12][13] under the supervision of Neil S. Sullivan.[13]
Career
[edit]Devoret worked as a postdoctoral researcher in John Clarke's group at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1982 to 1984.[8] Together, with John M. Martinis, a graduate student at the time, they demonstrated for the first time the quantized energy levels of a Josephson junction in 1985.[8][12]
Devoret then returned to France and founded the Quantronics group at the Orme des Merisiers laboratory of CEA Saclay together with Daniel Esteve 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 of qubit dubbed quantronium. They also observed the Ramsey fringes of quantronium.[8][14][15]
In 1996, Devoret spent a research stay in the laboratory of Hans Mooij at Delft University of Technology.[16]
Devoret became a professor at Yale University in 2002. At Yale University, Steven Girvin, Robert J. Schoelkopf, and Devoret devised a type of superconducting charge qubit called the transmon.[17][18] In 2009, Devoret also pioneered fluxonium,[19] which can be understood as a special type of flux qubit. In 2010, he also developed a microwave quantum limited amplifier for qubit readout and sensing.[20][21]
He also participated in 2018 in an experiment demonstrating the interruption and reversal of quantum jumps in a superconducting artificial atom, providing new insights into the dynamics of quantum measurement.[22]
From 2007 to 2012, Michel Devoret held the Chair of Mesoscopic Physics at the Collège de France where his inaugural lecture, "From the Atom to Quantum Machines," illustrated the connection between fundamental quantum phenomena and emerging quantum technologies.[23][24] He resigned in 2013.[8][14]
In 2023, he was named the Chief Scientist for Hardware at Google Quantum AI.[6] In 2024, he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara to serve as Professor of Physics.[3]
Recognition
[edit]In 1970, Michel Devoret received the Prix de la Couronne française, an award recognizing young French researchers.[25]
Awards
[edit]| Year | Organization | Award | Citation | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Ampère Prize[a] | — | [26] | |
| 1995 | Descartes–Huygens Prize | — | [27] | |
| 2004 | EPS Europhysics Prize[b] | "For the realisation and demonstration of the quantum bit concept based on superconducting circuits." | [28] | |
| 2013 | John Stewart Bell Prize[c] | — | [29] | |
| 2014 | Fritz London Memorial Prize[d] | "In recognition of fundamental and pioneering experimental advances in quantum control, quantum information processing and quantum optics with superconducting qubits and microwave photons." | [30] | |
| 2016 | Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize | "For his pioneering investigations and applications of macroscopic quantum phenomena at low temperatures." | [31] | |
| 2021 | Micius Quantum Prize[e] | "For their leading roles in pioneering superconducting quantum circuits and qubits." | [32] | |
| 2024 | Comstock Prize in Physics[c] | — | [33] | |
| 2025 | Nobel Prize in Physics[f] | "For the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit." | [7][34] |
Memberships
[edit]| Year | Organization | Type | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Member | [35] | |
| 2007 | Member | [36] | |
| 2023 | Member | [37] |
Chivalric titles
[edit]| Year | Head of state | Title | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Knight of the Legion of Honour | [38] |
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Shared with Daniel Esteve.
- ↑ Shared with Daniel Esteve, Johan Mooij, and Yasunobu Nakamura.
- 1 2 Shared with Robert J. Schoelkopf.
- ↑ Shared with John M. Martinis and Robert J. Schoelkopf.
- ↑ Shared with John Clarke and Yasunobu Nakamura.
- ↑ Shared with John Clarke and John M. Martinis.
References
[edit]- ↑ "Michel Devoret". theses.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ "PRIX NOBEL DE PHYSIQUE 2025 : Parcours des lauréats". Encyclopædia Universalis (in French). 21 October 2025. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
- 1 2 "Michel Devoret | Department of Physics | UC Santa Barbara". www.physics.ucsb.edu. Archived from the original on 7 October 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ "Michel Devoret – Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large Program". Retrieved 7 October 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ↑ "Michel Devoret". Yale Engineering. Archived from the original on 7 October 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- 1 2 "Googler Michel Devoret awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics". Inside Google. Archived from the original on 7 October 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- 1 2 Physics Nobel Prize (7 October 2025). Announcement of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. Retrieved 7 October 2025 – via YouTube.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Michel Devoret". Collège de France.
- ↑ "Nobel Prize in Physics 2025". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ Zierler, David (7 April 2021). "Devoret, Michel on 2021 April 7". Niels Bohr Library & Archives.
- ↑ "Michel H. Devoret". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 January 2026. Archived from the original on 10 November 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- 1 2 Hassinger, Sebastian (11 September 2024). The New Quantum Era. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-0981-4938-3.
- 1 2 Abragam, A. (2000). De la physique avant toute chose (in French). Odile Jacob. ISBN 978-2-7381-9064-2.
- 1 2 "2025 Nobel Prize Resources". AIP. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
- ↑ Mooij, Hans (1 December 2004). "Superconducting quantum bits". Physics World. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
- ↑ "The story of a research group at the origin of nan and quantum science in Delft. 1971-2013" (PDF). QuTech. 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
- ↑ "Yale's Michel H. Devoret wins 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics | Yale News". news.yale.edu. 7 October 2025. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
- ↑ Elsayyid, Joseph (6 February 2025). "Yale Quantum Institute marks ten years". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
- ↑ Manucharyan, Vladimir E.; Koch, Jens; Glazman, Leonid I.; Devoret, Michel H. (2 October 2009). "Fluxonium: single cooper-pair circuit free of charge offsets". Science. 326 (5949). American Association for the Advancement of Science: 113–116. arXiv:0906.0831. Bibcode:2009Sci...326..113M. doi:10.1126/science.1175552. PMID 19797655.
- ↑ Roy, Ananda; Devoret, Michel (July 2018). "Quantum-limited parametric amplification with Josephson circuits in the regime of pump depletion". Phys. Rev. B. 98 (4) 045405. American Physical Society. arXiv:1801.10115. Bibcode:2018PhRvB..98d5405R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.045405.
- ↑ "Yale-designed amplifier pushes the boundary of quantum physics". YaleNews. Yale University. 5 May 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
- ↑ Dumé, Isabelle (7 June 2019). "To catch a quantum jump". Physics World.
- ↑ "From atoms to quantum machines". Collège de France. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
- ↑ "Michel Devoret, De l'atome aux machines quantiques". La Lettre du Collège de France (24). December 2008 – via OpenEdition.org.
- ↑ Regley, Martin (7 October 2025). "Nobel de physique : le Français Michel Devoret récompensé avec le Britannique John Clarke et l'Américain John Martinis". Paris Match. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
- ↑ "40 ans du Prix Ampère" (PDF). www.academie-sciences.fr (in French). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ "Prix Descartes-Huygens/Descartes-Huygensprijs" (PDF). www.academie-sciences.fr (in French). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ "EPS Europhysics Prize". www.eps.org. Archived from the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
- ↑ "Michel Devoret and Robert Schoelkopf". cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca. Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
- ↑ "Fritz London Memorial Prize". physics.duke.edu. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ↑ "Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize 2016 awarded to Michel Devoret". www.aalto.fi. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "Laureates". www.miciusprize.org. Archived from the original on 14 March 2026. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ↑ "Select Prizes and Awards to Members". www.amacad.org. Archived from the original on 19 January 2026. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ Andrew N. Cleland; Steven M. Girvin (27 May 2026). "Profile of John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis: 2025 Nobel laureates in Physics". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 123 (22). doi:10.1073/PNAS.2604018123. ISSN 0027-8424. Wikidata Q140042378.
- ↑ "Michel Henri Devoret". www.amacad.org. Archived from the original on 7 October 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ "Michel Devoret". www.academie-sciences.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 14 December 2025. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
- ↑ "Michel H. Devoret". www.nasonline.org. Archived from the original on 8 February 2026. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
- ↑ "Décret du 11 juillet 2008 portant promotion et nomination".