Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martinis returns to his Croatian roots

John Martinis and Director of the Krka National Park Nella Slavica (Photo: Krka National Park)

ZAGREB, 8 July (Hina/Croatia Week) – Nobel Prize-winning physicist John Martinis, who is currently visiting Croatia, said that the most important thing is to encourage children and young people to ask questions.

When deciding whether to accept an invitation to visit the homeland of his parents, his father born in Komiža and his mother, an American of Croatian descent, Martinis said he thought: ”I heard it‘s beautiful.”

The Californian physicist was referring to actor John Malkovich, also of Croatian descent, who popularised that slogan in a recent promotional video for Croatia.

Martinis, a pioneer in quantum mechanics and one of three scientists awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for research enabling the development of quantum computers, has helped lay the foundations of a technology expected to shape the future.

Together with John Clarke and Michel Devoret, he demonstrated through experiments that quantum mechanics, typically describing subatomic physics, can also be applied at larger scales, such as electrical circuits.

On Monday he spoke at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, the Ruđer Bošković Institute and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. He later travelled to Dalmatia to visit Komiža after stopping in at Krka National Park.

”Welcome home, Professor Martinis,” Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman told him.

Since receiving the Nobel Prize last year, Martinis has become something of an ”ambassador of science”, speaking in Zagreb about his research journey.

He recalled that his father was a fisherman who had to know how to fix things and was always working in the garage.

However, crucial to his scientific path was his parents’ approach to upbringing, as they always encouraged him to ask questions, he said.

Again referring to the promotional video featuring Malkovich, and to his current visit to Croatia, the scientist said it reminded him of growing up in the Croatian community in San Pedro, California, particularly the ”stubbornness” of Croatian people and their directness in expressing what they think. Both traits, he said, helped him in his scientific career.

Grlić Radman said Croatia is a small country but science is an important part of its identity, expressing hope that Martinis’ visit would lead to new scientific collaborations between Croatian and American research communities.

Quantum computers, on which Martinis works, are expected to have wide-ranging applications across society. He believes major progress will be made within the next five to ten years, requiring significant restructuring in many areas of society.

One key application, he said, is molecular design, including materials that could replace critical minerals, raw materials in high global demand due to their importance in modern technologies ranging from mobile phones and electric vehicle batteries to renewable energy and defence systems.

During his visit to Croatia, Martinis also toured Krka National Park, where he visited the iconic Skradinski Buk waterfalls and explored the Visovac Lake and Među grede canyon by boat.

(Photo: Krka National Park)

The visit highlighted not only the park’s natural beauty but also its scientific significance. At Skradinski Buk, he saw the remains of the historic Krka hydroelectric power plant, commissioned in 1895 just two days after the Niagara plant built using Nikola Tesla’s alternating current system.

The Krka plant made history as the first in the world to use AC electricity to power an entire city, Šibenik.

Park officials also presented Krka as a “living laboratory of physics”, demonstrating how its waterfalls, rivers and landscapes illustrate principles of mechanics, acoustics, hydrodynamics and thermodynamics, while showcasing the close links between physical processes and biology.

(Photo: Krka National Park)

The visit held personal significance for Martinis, whose maternal family also has roots in the Šibenik-Knin region, adding another connection to the area during his return to his ancestral homeland.