His central role in the invention and first demonstration of the quantum cascade (QC) laser in 1994 was recognised by the IEE premium (1995), the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer award (1998), the Michael Lunn award (1999), the ISCS "Young scientist award" (1999), and the Swiss National Latsis Prize (2003).

His present interests are the development of high performance QC lasers in the Mid and Far-​infrared and the physics of coherence in intersubband transitions in the presence of strong magnetic fields.