In 1986 he became research director at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, and in 1987 founded the physics laboratory there.[2] In 1990 the French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Grand Prix de l'Etat for his work, and between 1994 and 1997 he worked as a visiting professor at the physical chemistry department of the University of Oxford; he moved Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge in 1997 and became Professor of Chemistry.