On the 7th (local time), John Clarke, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in the United States who jointly won the 2025 Nobel Prize in physics, said by phone upon hearing the news of the award, "Even cellphones are thanks to our research."
According to foreign media including the Associated Press and Reuters, Clarke, who is from the United Kingdom, told reporters via a phone call shortly after the announcement by the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, "Cautiously speaking, this is the most astonishing thing in my life."
That day, Clarke shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Michel Devoret of Yale University and John Martinis of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara) for proving that quantum mechanical phenomena occur even in the visible, tangible "macroscopic world."
Asked for his thoughts on the award, he said, "I was really stunned," adding, "We never thought this could be the basis for a Nobel Prize."
Clarke paid tribute to Michel Devoret of Yale University and John Martinis of UC Santa Barbara, who shared the prize with him, saying, "Their contributions are truly overwhelming."
He explained their research by saying, "In some respects, our discovery can be considered the foundation of quantum computing."
Speaking on a cellphone, he added, "One of the fundamental reasons a cellphone works is thanks to all this research."