He is a professor emeritus at École Polytechnique in Montreal and the founding director of CREPEC (Center for Applied Research on Polymers and Composites presently named Center for Research on High Performance Polymer and Composite Systems).
He was chairman of the department from 1973 to 1979 and later was founding director of the Applied Research Center on Polymers, CRASP, created in 1988.
In that respect, his work on mixing of polymers with helical ribbon agitators is highly recognized by the research community as well as by engineers involved in the design of polymerization reactors and other mixing systems.
Carreau's ideas have been used to design large, high performance, economical industrial reactors in the U.S. and India.
He has also shown interest in using larger blade helical impellers to mix difficult viscoelastic fluids and to reduce shear and prevent degradation of highly sensitive materials, such as biomaterials.