UPSC Prelims 2026 GS Paper I · Q81 / 98 Current Events medium

‘X’, born in the UK, was conferred the Nobel Prize in 2025. He was a professor in an American university when this prize was announced. Identify ‘X’ :

  1. (a) Michel H. Devoret
  2. (b) Richard Robson
  3. (c) John Clarke ✓ UPSC's answer
  4. (d) Joel Mokyr

Why the answer is (c)

• The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for demonstrating macroscopic quantum tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit — the foundation of superconducting quantum computers.

• John Clarke was born in Cambridge, England, and is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley — he fits both clues (UK-born, professor at an American university).

• Michel Devoret was born in France; although he too works at American universities (Yale, UC Santa Barbara), the UK birth clue rules him out.

• Richard Robson, a 2025 Chemistry laureate for metal-organic frameworks, is UK-born but a professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Joel Mokyr, a 2025 Economics laureate at Northwestern University, was born in the Netherlands.

• Hence option (c).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) Michel H. Devoret
Devoret was born in France, not the UK.
(b) Richard Robson
Robson is UK-born but is a professor in Australia, not the USA.
(d) Joel Mokyr
Mokyr was born in the Netherlands, not the UK.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2026, held on 24 May 2026. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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