𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Three U.S.-based scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for their discoveries in quantum mechanics.

The award was given to Briton John Clarke, Frenchman Michel H. Devoret and American John M. Martinis for “experiments that revealed quantum physics in action,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Martinis is based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as is Devoret, who also conducted his research at Yale. Clarke conducted his at the University of California, Berkeley.

“To put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life,” Clarke told reporters at the announcement by phone after being told of his win.

He paid tribute to the other two laureates, saying that “their contributions are just overwhelming.”

“Our discovery in some ways is the basis of quantum computing. Exactly at this moment where this fits in is not entirely clear to me.”

However, speaking from his cellphone, Clarke added: “One of the underlying reasons that cellphones work is because of all this work.’’

The Nobel committee said that the laureates’ work in the 1980s continues to provide opportunities to develop “the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors.”

“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” said Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

It is the 119th time the prize has been awarded. Last year, artificial intelligence pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won the physics prize for helping create the building blocks of machine learning.

On Monday, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about how the immune system knows to attack germs and not our bodies.