Working as a Senior Physicist at CERN since 1961, Carlo Rubbia's name is related to the discovery of the W and Z Particles. In 1984 he, together with Simon van der Meer, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the work he had done as Head of the UA1 Collaboration.

From 1970 to 1988 Carlo Rubbia spent one semester per year at Harvard University as Higgins Professor of Physics.

In January 1989 he was appointed Director-General of CERN. In November of Carlo Rubbia's first year as Director-General the inauguration of LEP, the Large Electron Positron Collider, took place after eight years construction under his predecessor Herwig Schopper.

During his mandate as Director-General, the four LEP experiments (ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL) gave their first important scientific results. Continued development in relation to the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Project culminated in the presentation of the LHC Project and its experimental programme to CERN Council in December 1993. (The project was approved in December 1994.)

In December 1992 The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Georges Charpak for the invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multi-wire proportional chamber.

Carlo Rubbia was succeeded by Christopher Llewellyn Smith in January 1994.