He joined the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in 1970, as an engineer. He was promoted to the position of director of the Particle Physics Section of the Department of Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Associated Instrumentation (DAPNIA ) in 1991 and led the section until 1999. He became chargé de mission of the CEA and assistant scientific director in Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), responsible for astroparticle physics and neutrinos. He took over the leadership of DAPNIA in 2002. From 2003 to 2010 he was appointed director of Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3) in CNRS.[1]
Spiro obtained his PhD [2] from University of Paris-Sud, Orsay in 1976. His early research in particle physics led him, as a member of the UA1 experiment, to participate in the discovery of the intermediate bosons W and Z.[3]
He then turned to study particles from the cosmos by participating in the GALLEX solar neutrino detection experiment.[4]
He became then the spokesperson of the microlensing search experiment EROS(Experience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres).[5][6][7]
From 2010 to 2013 he was President of CERN Council. His presidency overlapped with the start of LHC physics.[8] Since then Spiro helds the position as research director emeritus at the CEA.
Spiro chaired during 2022 and 2023 the steering committee of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD2022). He also contributed towards the proclamation on August 25 2023, by the United Nations General Assembly, of an International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development 2024 to 2033.[15] In this framework he chairs the Earth-Humanity Coalition during the year 2024.
Experimental Observation of Isolated Large Transverse Energy Electrons with Associated Missing Energy at s**(1/2) =540-GeV. UA1 Collaboration (G.Arnison et al.). Feb 1983. 31 pp. Phys. Lett. B122 (1983) 103-116DOI: 10.1016/0370-2693(83)91177-2
Experimental Particle Physics Without Accelerators. J. Rich, D. Lloyd Owen, M. Spiro (Saclay). 1987. 126 pp. Phys. Rep. 151 (1987) 239-364DOI: 10.1016/0370-1573(87)90055-X
Search for superheavy hydrogen in sea water. M. Spiro, B. Pichard, J. Rich, J.P. Soirat, S. Zylberajch (DAPNIA, Saclay), G. Grynberg, F. Trehin, P. Verkerk, Pierre Fayet (École Normale Superieure), M.E. Goldberg (Pasteur Inst., Paris). 1990. Les Arcs 1990, Proceedings, New and exotic phenomena '90 489-498'
Evidence for gravitational microlensing by dark objects in the galactic halo. EROS collaboration E. Aubourg, P. Bareyre, S. Brehin, M. Gros, M. Lachieze-Rey, B. Laurent, E. Lesquoy, C. Magneville, A. Milsztain, L. Moscoso (DAPNIA, Saclay) et al.. Oct 1993. 3 pp. Nature 365 (1993) 623-625DOI: 10.1038/365623a0
Basdevant, J. L.; Rich, James; Spiro, Michel (2005). Fundamentals in nuclear physics : from nuclear structure to cosmology. New York: Springer. ISBN978-0-387-25095-3. OCLC262679959.
Tannoudji, Gilles (2013). Le boson et le chapeau mexicain : un nouveau grand récit de l'univers (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN978-2-07-035549-5. OCLC852216917.