Until the mid 1960's, Darriulat did his research on nuclear physics and took part in several experiments on scattering of deuterons and alpha particles. Darriulat was employed at Saclay Nuclear Research Centre, France. After a few years at CERN as visiting physicist and CERN fellow, Darriulat was offered a tenure position in 1971. For six years he was a member of the research group of Carlo Rubbia, that made essential contributions to the physics of CP violation in the neutral kaon sector. He then took part in experiments conducted at the Intersecting Storage Rings — the world’s first hadron collider. Using his experience from the ISR, Darriulat and collaborators proposed the UA2 experiment in 1978 at the commissioned Proton-Antiproton Collider — a modification of the Super Proton Synchrotron. Darriulat acted as the spokesperson for the experiment from 1981 to 1986. In 1983 the UA2 collaboration, together with the UA1 collaboration, discovered the W and Z boson, an important milestone in modern particle physics, as it confirmed the electroweak theory. The discovery led to the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer for their decisive contributions to the design and construction of the proton-antiproton collider. Prior to the discovery the UA2 collaboration made the first observation of emission of quarks and gluons in the form of hadronic jet – an important experimental support of the theory of quantum chromodynamics. From 1987 to 1994 Darriulat held the position as Research Director at CERN, during which time the Large Electron–Positron Collider began its operation. Subsequent, Darriulat turned to solid state physics, conducting research in the field of superconductivity on the property of niobium films. In 2000, Darriulat launched a research group in Vietnam, in which he is still active. The group does research in the field of astrophysics. They first did research on extreme energy cosmic rays in collaboration with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Subsequently, the group turned to millimeter/submillimeter radio astronomy, studying stellar physics and galaxies of the early Universe. The group is now the Department of Astrophysics of the Vietnam Space Centre at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
