Michel Devoret is a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and F. W. Beinecke Professor of

Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He also holds a position as the Director of the Applied Physics Nanofabrication Lab at Yale. He is known for his pioneering work on macroscopic

quantum tunneling In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

, and the single-electron pump as well as in groundbreaking contributions to initiating the fields of circuit quantum electrodynamics and quantronics.

Biography

Devoret was born in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. He graduated from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications in Paris (1975) and went on to earn his PhD in physics from the University of Orsay (

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

) in 1982, while working in the molecular quantum physics group at Paris. After his doctoral work, he proceeded to post-doctoral training for two years, working on macroscopic

in John Clarke's laboratory at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

. Devoret's research has been focused on experimental solid state physics and condensed matter physics, with specific emphasis on circuit quantum electrodynamics and a field he and his colleagues initiated, known as "quantronics," the study of certain

mesoscopic Mesoscopic physics is a subdiscipline of condensed matter physics that deals with materials of an intermediate size. These materials range in size between the nanoscale for a quantity of atoms (such as a molecule) and of materials measuring mic ...

electronic effects in which collective degrees of freedom, such as electric currents and voltages behave quantum mechanically. In addition, his group has been carrying out investigations on single

Cooper pair In condensed matter physics, a Cooper pair or BCS pair (Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer pair) is a pair of electrons (or other fermions) bound together at low temperatures in a certain manner first described in 1956 by American physicist Leon Cooper. ...

devices for fields such as

quantum computation A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using specialized hardware. C ...

and

metrology Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of Unit of measurement, units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to stan ...

, and studying amplification, information, and noise in

systems. His work in association with well-known experimentalists in the field such as Rob Schoelkopf as well as theorists, such as Steven Girvin has brought about valuable insights in

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

and in developing a new paradigm of circuit QED using superconducting electrical circuits, which are now viewed as one of the main platforms for the implementation of quantum information processors. Also, after having developed new types of amplifiers reaching the quantum limit, he employed them to determine the fundamental back-action of measurements. In particular, Michel’s team showed that it was possible to stop a quantum jump in its flight and reverse it. He currently investigates the new phenomena of quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum operation. In addition, his work on quantum information, in association with A. Marblestone, has shown an exponential quantum enhancement in certain communication channels as a result of entanglement (see

Quantum pseudo-telepathy Quantum pseudo-telepathy describes the use of quantum entanglement to eliminate the need for classical communications. A nonlocal game is said to display quantum pseudo-telepathy if players who can use entanglement can win it with certainty whi ...

). In addition to a number of awards, he has been awarded the John Bell Prize (shared with Rob Schoelkopf) in 2013 for "Fundamental and pioneering experimental advances in entangling superconducting qubits and microwave photons, and their application to quantum information processing."

Honors

* Comstock Prize in Physics, 2024 * Olli V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize, 2016 *

Fritz London Memorial Prize The International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT) is an academic conference held every three years near the month of September attracting on average well over a thousand participants from all over the world. The LT conferences are endorse ...

, 2014 * John Bell Prize (shared with Robert Schoelkopf), 2013 * Elected Membership, the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

, 2007 * Professorship at the

College de France A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

, 2007-2012 * Europhysics-Agilent Prize,

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach, supporting physicists to engage in the design and implementation of European s ...

, 2004 * Elected Membership, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, 2003 * Descartes-Huygens Prize, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, 1995 * Prize Ampère, the French Academy of Science, 1991

Noteworthy publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* http://qulab.eng.yale.edu/ * https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.00539 {{DEFAULTSORT:Devoret, Michael Yale University faculty Living people French physicists Year of birth missing (living people) Quantum information scientists Paris-Sud University alumni