California physicist and Nobel laureate John Martinis won't quit on quantum computers

A California physicist and Nobel laureate who laid the instauration for quantum computing isn’t done working.

For the past 40 years, John Martinis has worked — mostly wrong California — to make the fastest computers ever built.

“It’s benignant of my nonrecreational imagination to bash this by the clip I’m truly excessively aged to retire. I should discontinue now, but I’m not doing that,” the present 67-year-old said.

Born and raised successful San Pedro, Martinis said his California precocious schoolhouse teachers influenced him to prosecute his career. A physics teacher got him funny successful the topic, helium said, and a mathematics teacher taught him rigor, enactment ethic and organization.

“I deliberation earlier past I’d conscionable constitute down the solution” alternatively than showing his process, helium joked successful an interrogation with The Times.

As an undergraduate elder astatine UC Berkeley successful the 1980s, helium met John Clarke, a British physicist and prof who would go his postgraduate advisor, and Michel Devoret, a French physicist who worked with him arsenic a postdoctoral researcher.

John Clarke, right, a prof emeritus of physics, looks connected during a solemnisation astatine UC Berkeley connected Oct. 7, 2025, aft helium and chap physicists Michel Devoret and John Martinis were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize successful physics for their enactment connected quantum tunneling.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

“This was a fantastic experience, to beryllium mentored by 2 fantastic people,” helium said during a quality league Tuesday astatine UC Santa Barbara, wherever helium works arsenic a professor. “I learned truthful overmuch from them that, done my full career, I was benignant of trying to re-create that tone that we had successful there.”

Martinis was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize successful physics, alongside Clarke and Devoret, for his doctoral project, a bid of experiments successful the mid-1980s that proved quantum tunneling was imaginable with ample objects, which became the ground for the improvement of quantum computers arsenic good arsenic overmuch of the existent probe successful that field.

Both Clarke and Devoret are based successful the U.S. and associated with the University of California strategy — Clarke arsenic a prof emeritus astatine Berkeley and Devoret arsenic a prof astatine UC Santa Barbara.

“I loved Berkeley. It was large to beryllium taught by these truly astonishing professors,” Martinis said, noting the university’s cutting-edge facilities that supported the experiments. “As a student, I could absorption connected conscionable being a bully scientist.”

Martinis went connected to bash a postdoctoral fellowship successful France, past returned stateside to Boulder, Colo., wherever helium worked astatine the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a U.S. authorities lab. In 2008 helium moved backmost to California to enactment astatine UC Santa Barbara arsenic a professor, and successful 2014, Google hired him and Devoret to make an experimental quantum processor faster than immoderate quality supercomputer — which his squad completed 5 years later.

“It truly was each this basal probe we did for decades that enabled this to hap and enabled america to person a imaginativeness ... to physique this thing,” Martinis said.

He chose UC Santa Barbara arsenic a workplace not conscionable due to the fact that of the large determination and weather, but besides for its precocious facilities and community. Researchers from different disciplines — specified arsenic engineers and materials scientists who physique semiconductors — are capable to freely pass and collaborate with his team.

“Working with talented and affable radical astatine the assemblage is truly special,” helium said. “You tin really get things done.”

Martinis said helium has enjoyed proceeding backmost from erstwhile students who person reached retired to observe his award. Speaking to students years aft they instrumentality his classes and grasp the effect connected their lives has been refreshing. His enactment implicit the years has spawned an manufacture that created thousands of well-paying jobs for radical crossed the country, helium said.

He praised the UC strategy for its civilization and collaboration with the backstage assemblage and government, but said that probe and improvement for quantum computers successful the U.S. indispensable urgently velocity up if we expect to spot it successful our lifetimes.

After leaving Google successful 2020, Martinis co-founded his backstage company, QoLab, successful 2022 with a content that precocious semiconductor chips are the way to achieving usable quantum computers. The institution has begun collaborating with different startup companies and world groups progressive successful semiconductor production, helium said.

“I deliberation this collaborative exemplary is going to beryllium much fruitful due to the fact that we truly get a batch of absorbing ideas,” Martinis said. “We person a batch to drawback up on. But it’s a precise bully ambiance to invent things.”