Martinis, John M.
Oral history interview with John Martinis, 2021 May 4.
Interview with John Martinis, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara. Martinis gave the interview from Australia, where he was consulting for Silicon Computing following his affiliation with Googles efforts to build a quantum computer. He surveys the current state of play toward that goal, and explains what applications quantum computing can serve, and how the field is clarifying the technological requirements to achieve a quantum computer. Martinis recounts his childhood in Los Angeles, his early interests in computers, and his undergraduate experience at Berkeley where he gravitated toward experimental physics. He describes his interactions with John Clarke and his motivations to stay at Berkeley for graduate school, where he focused on SQUIDS and was captivated by Tony Leggetts ideas on quantum tunneling. Martinis explains his interest in working with Michel Devoret at Saclay for his postdoctoral research, where there was much excitement over high Tc and YBCO materials. He describes his subsequent work at NIST and his decision to join the faculty at Santa Barbara around the time he became focused on quantum computing. Martinis narrates the technological challenges of building qubits and error correction, and he explains how he got involved with Google and joined his style with its research culture. He describes his role as chief scientist in the collaboration and why his vision and Googles diverged. Martinis addresses the issue of hype in quantum computing. At the end of the interview, Martinis emphasizes the centrality of systems engineering to his research agenda, and he explains why quantum supremacy will demonstrate the need for quantum computing and the limitations of classical computing.
John Martinis is a professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara. He is also a consultant at Silicon Quantum Computing, working with Michelle Simmons. Martinis completed his graduate studies at UC Berkeley and conducted postdoctoral research at Saclay. He previously worked at NIST before joining faculty at UC Barbara.
Clarke, John, 1942-
Cleland, Andrew N., 1961-
Devoret, Michel H.
Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988
Jackson, John David, 1925-2016
Centre d'ťudes nuclǎires de Saclay
Google (Firm)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (U.S.)
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Condensed matter. fast
High temperature superconductors.
Josephson effect
Quantum computing.
Superconducting quantum interference devices.
Systems engineering.
Tunneling (Physics)
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA