Finally, he was rehired at  the Faculte des Sciences de Lyon as professor of chemistry, where he would remain for the remainder of his career. In 1899, Barbier published what would become his most famous paper in the chemical community: the first known study of organomagnesium nucleophiles with carbonyl compounds. Whereas organozinc nucleophiles had been noted previously to undergo similar reactions (such as the Zaytsev reaction), organomagnesiums were significantly more reactive towards carbonyl nucleophiles. Barbier noted, though, that the reaction often suffered from low yields and reproducibility problems. He was well-known to have more ideas than time, so he tasked his new graduate student, Victor Grignard, with improving his developed conditions. Grignard took to the task with great vigor, and just one year later, in 1900, Grignard published on an alternative procedure which consisted of preformation of the organomagnesium compound followed by addition of the carbonyl substrate. Despite paying homage to Zaytsev and Barbier in the acknowledgements of this first publication, and despite citing Barbier’s 1899 communication as the inciting action for his 1900 publication, Grignard would go on to publish on this chemistry and its applications until 1928 as his own intellectual property. Considering that both Grignard and Barbier reported their individual findings as being novel (and that they published separately on the topic), it is difficult to assign credit to one person or the other for the original idea. Though many have speculated on what became of the relationship between teacher and pupil, what is certain is that the two continued to publish together, combining Barbier’s newfound knowledge of terpene chemistry with their joint expertise in organomagnesiums to produce 10 more joint papers over the years. Additionally, in line with Grignard’s statements about the unfairness of the Nobel award he received, he continued to defend Barbier’s contribution to the state of the art (though he claims his input was equally valuable), even taking care to speak with utmost fondness about his “revered master” in a biography written by his son, Robert Grignard. It is difficult to discern the logic behind the Nobel committee’s disregard for Barbier and Senderens. According to colleagues of Grignard’s at Lyon, “…with the exception of Grignard and two other students who knew how to get along with Barbier, the latter would have nothing to do with the world around him”.