From 1945, on, he studied biology in Paris at the Sorbonne, where he attended classes delivered by biologists such as Georges Mangenot in Botany and Pierre-Paul Grassé in Zoology.
He was first posted at the IDERT (Institut d'Enseignement et de Recherches Tropicales) center of Adiopodoumé, near Abidjan (Ivory Coast), in the phytopathology lab directed by Prof. Jean Chevaugeon.
After leaving Africa in 1975, he was posted in Paris where Prof. Alain Chabaud welcomed him in his Laboratoire des Vers, specializing in parasitic nematodes, helminths, and protozoa, at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
He was one of the handful of biologists who developed the then little-known field of plant nematology after WWII, and gave this group of devastating parasites the recognition they deserve.
In 1987, he led a team (including Armand Maggenti, Renaud Fortuner, Dewey Raski, and Etienne Geraert) for a complete reorganization of the taxonomy of the order Tylenchida, a work which is still accepted as valid today.
As Head of the Nematology laboratory within the Biology Department of ORSTOM, from its creation until his retirement in 1992, he supervised the scientific beginnings of many French tropical nematologists.
(Skip) Sher, in 1975, he was invited for six months at the University of California, Riverside, under a UCR-funded fellowship for teaching the advanced nematology classes given each year by that institution.
Prof. Aeschlimann asked the Faculté des Sciences of his university to grant Michel Luc the title of Docteur honoris causa in 1987, which was unanimously accepted.
He contributed to various books and he was one of the Scientific Editors of Plant-parasitic nematodes in subtropical and tropical agriculture, published by CAB International, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, in 1990.