Following his doctoral work he continued his astronomical research at Harvard University and at the Lunar Planetary Laboratory (LPL) of the University of Arizona. He taught at the University of Scranton and in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. In the 1970s he served as director of the University of Arizona's Catalina Observatory, Associate Director of the Steward Observatory and the Lunar Planetary Laboratory, and as acting director of the astronomy department of University of Arizona. He served as director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978-2006 and founded the Vatican Observatory Summer School and the Vatican Observatory Research Group. He is director emeritus of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.

Fr. Coyne's research interests have been in polarimetric studies of various subjects including the interstellar medium, stars with extended atmospheres and Seyfert galaxies. Most recently he has been studying the polarization produced in cataclysmic variables, or interacting binary star systems that give off sudden bursts of intense energy. He has been active in promoting the dialogue between science and religion and has contributed to the continuing debate about the religious implications of scientific evolution. He also pioneered a series of conferences on “Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action.”

Fr. Coyne has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from St. Peter's College, Jersey City; Loyola University Chicago; University of Padua, Italy; Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Boston College; Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York; the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts; Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. Also among his honors has been the naming of asteroid 14429 Coyne after him.

Fr. Coyne is a member of the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the Pontifical Academy of Science.

A member of the American Bureau of Shipping, she is a lifetime national associate of the National Academies/National Research Council and served as vice chair of the National Academies’ policy committee for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration assessing the nation’s tsunami readiness. Most recently, she chaired the National Academies’ study examining the future of naval engineering in the 21st century for the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research.

Grabowski is widely published in engineering, information systems, large-scale systems, human systems, and safety science journals and publications. A licensed former merchant officer and retired LCDR in the U.S. Naval Reserve, her research group is currently studying the effectiveness of social media in extreme warning events and the impact of technology in highly reliable virtual organizations such as natural disaster prevention and response organizations.

Grabowski and her research group have conducted a series of major maritime risk assessments in Valdez, Alaska, the port of Houston, the lower Mississippi River, and for oil tanker operations in Puget Sound; she developed a suite of embedded intelligent piloting systems in a decade of research projects for the oil and gas industry following the grounding of the Exxon Valdez. Her research interests focus on the impact of technology in safetycritical systems; risk analysis and risk mitigation in large-scale systems; the role of human and organizational error in high consequence settings; and financial cybersecurity in complex, heterogeneous data environments.