[1] He is best known for his contributions to the Maple computer algebra system[3] and the creation of a digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The project was selected by the Oxford University Press as a partner for the computerisation leading to the publication of the second edition of the OED.

[8] In 1991, he began developing the Darwin programming language for biosciences,[9] which would become the basis for OMA,[10] a package and database for gene orthology prediction.

On June 9, 2011, Gonnet and Keith O. Geddes received the ACM Richard D. Jenks Memorial Prize for Excellence in Software Engineering Applied to Computer Algebra for the Maple Project.

On March 14, 2013, Gonnet was awarded a Dr. Honoris Causa by the Universidad de la República, engineering faculty from Uruguay.