Life Member Professor John Clarke awarded 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
Clare Hall is delighted to celebrate Professor John Clarke, Life Member and former Visiting Fellow of the College, who has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Professor Clarke shares the prize with Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for their pioneering experiments demonstrating quantum phenomena in superconducting circuits. Their work revealed how quantum mechanics can govern the behaviour of systems large enough to be built and measured, bridging the gap between theory and technology and paving the way for modern advances in quantum computing and sensing.
A Cambridge alumnus, Professor Clarke completed both his undergraduate and doctoral studies in Natural Sciences at Christ’s College, before establishing an outstanding academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is now Professor Emeritus of Physics. His groundbreaking research in the 1980s showed that quantum effects such as energy quantisation and tunnelling could be observed in macroscopic circuits—work that has transformed the field of experimental physics.
Professor Clarke held a Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall in 1989–1990, maintaining strong ties with the College thereafter.
The University of Cambridge congratulated Professor Clarke on his achievement, highlighting his contribution to a long tradition of Cambridge-affiliated Nobel laureates who have shaped global science.
Clare Hall warmly extends its congratulations to Professor Clarke on this remarkable recognition of his lifelong commitment to scientific discovery.
Read the full announcement from the University of Cambridge.