Christoph Bruder: Professor John Clarke, Professor Michel H. Devoret and Professor John M. Martinis showed "for the first time experimentally that even large systems can operate according to the rules of quantum mechanics. These results meant that work could begin on building specific macroscopic quantum systems and developing new fields of technology such as quantum computing, quantum sensors or quantum communication."

Andrea Hofmann: "Such Josephson junctions, in which macroscopic tunneling was observed, are the foundation of our research. We use the junctions to build quantum bits — like bits for classical computers, but with quantum properties — by exploiting the fact that the quantum properties are maintained during tunneling."