Charpak's family moved from Poland to Paris when he was seven years old, beginning his study of mathematics in 1941 at the Lycée Saint-Louis.

He graduated in 1948, earning the French degree of Civil Engineer of Mines (Ingénieur Civil des Mines equivalent to a Master's degree) becoming a pupil in the laboratory of Frédéric Joliot-Curie at the Collège de France during 1949,[5][7] the year after Curie had directed construction of the first atomic pile within France.

[5][10] In 1959, he joined the staff of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, where he invented and developed[11] the multiwire proportional chamber.

This is where he developed and demonstrated the powerful applications of the particle detectors he invented, most notably for enabling better health diagnostics.

He was the co-founder of a number of start-up in the biolab arena, including Molecular Engines Laboratories, Biospace Instruments and SuperSonic Imagine – together with Mathias Fink.