UCSB physicists accept Nobel Prizes in Sweden

In a ceremony full of splendor, music and admiration, UC Santa Barbara physics professors Michel Devoret and John Martinis, alongside their mentor, UC Berkeley physicist John Clarke, on Dec. 10 officially received their Nobel Prizes from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Each presented with a medal and a diploma, the scientists were selected for the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”

The ceremony also honored the laureates of the 2025 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economic Sciences. Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is in hiding and under a travel ban, was unable to attend her ceremony in Oslo, Norway; her daughter accepted the award on her behalf.

The Nobel Prize ceremony and subsequent banquet was one of the main highlights in a weeklong celebration that includes shows and artistic presentations from and for the community, lectures from the laureates, a musical concert and thought-provoking dialogues.