Michel Devoret is a French physicist and F. W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics at Yale University.
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 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 devices for fields such as quantum computation and metrology, and studying amplification, information, and noise in mesoscopic 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 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.