This announcement originally appeared on the official website for Governor Gavin Newsom on October 13, 2025.
SACRAMENTO – Five California scientists were honored among this year’s Nobel laureates, commemorating their groundbreaking contributions in physics, chemistry, and physiology/medicine. Home to more Nobel laureates than any country in the world aside from the United States itself, these honors reflect the leading role California plays in advancing scientific progress across the globe.
UC Berkeley’s John Clarke and UC Santa Barbara’s John M. Martinis and Michel H. Devoret received the Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering research demonstrating quantum behavior in electrical circuits — foundational work driving advances in quantum computing. UC Berkeley’s Omar M. Yaghi was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing metal–organic frameworks, breakthrough materials that enable carbon capture and have clean-energy applications. Fred Ramsdell, a UC San Diego and UCLA alumnus and researcher at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries in immunology, which helps reveal how regulatory T cells help prevent autoimmune disease.
California is at the forefront of research and innovation and leads the nation in more patents per capita than any other state — with more than 4 times the number of patents than Texas, the second highest. The new discoveries and advancements born from the state’s best-in-class universities and research institutions have a major economic impact: California’s life sciences sector contributed $396 billion in economic output statewide last year, bolstered by over 17,200 establishments supporting more than 1.15 million jobs.