After two years as Research Associate at MIT, he was appointed in the early 1980s as faculty member in the Physics Department at the Université de Montréal.
During his term as director, the CRM succeeded in rallying the forces of quantitative research by forming a network of centers of excellence in computing from the association of seven major Montreal research centers (CERCA, CIRANO, CRIM, CRM, CRI, GERAD and INRS–Télécom) under the banner of the Network for Computing and Mathematical Modeling (NCM2).
As president of NCM2 from 1996 to 1999, he was at the origin of two important research initiatives: the Bell University Laboratory, of which he became the first president and chief executive officer, and the Réseau québécois de calcul de haute performance (RQCHP), a high performance computing organization for which he presented the first grant application to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
Vinet is also one of the founding members of and the MITACS Network of Centers of Excellence, which received an initial funding of 14 million dollars.
As rector, he set an inspired vision for this great institution, developing and executing an integrated strategic plan for the university.