[5] He is well known as a co-discoverer of fibronectin molecules, a discovery that has been listed by Thomson Scientific ScienceWatch as a Nobel Prize candidate.
He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund from 1971 to 1974.
[4][5][7] Hynes became a faculty member in the biology department at MIT in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1983.
He was awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator status in 1988.
[7][8] Hynes served as the president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2000.