Barchi began as his career an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. By 1985, he was the David Mahoney Professor of Neurological Sciences. He served as director of the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences from 1983 to 1996. In 1992, Barchi became the chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at the
Perelman School of Medicine, a department that he had founded. He led the Department of Neurology from 1995 to 1999. Barchi's research in neuroscience and neurology has been supported by the
National Institutes of Health. His most extensive research focus has been on voltage-gated ion channels in nerve and muscle and the role these molecules can play in human disease. He was elected to the
Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the
Association of American Physicians. He is a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Neurological Association, and the
American Academy of Neurology. He has won the
Jacob K. Javits Award from the
National Institutes of Health. He was provost of the
University of Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2004. Barchi served as president of
Thomas Jefferson University from 2004 to 2012 and president of
Rutgers University from 2012 to 2020. At Thomas Jefferson University, Barchi oversaw establishment of the College of Pharmacy and College of Population Health, expanded oncology programs, and increased student enrollment by 51 percent. He also doubled the level of annual fundraising. Barchi oversaw the formation of
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences in 2013 and the entrance of Rutgers University-New Brunswick into the
Big Ten Conference a year later. He led the establishment and construction of an honors college at New Brunswick that contributed to a 50-point rise in average SAT scores of incoming students over four years. Barchi welcomed President
Barack Obama to speak at the 2016 commencement ceremony celebrating Rutgers' 250th anniversary year. He directed $2.5 billion in new construction at Rutgers and an increase in annual fundraising from $95 million in 2012 to $251 million in 2019. Barchi helped negotiate an agreement between Rutgers and
RWJBarnabas Health in 2018 to jointly operate New Jersey's largest academic health system. In July 2019, he announced that he would retire at the end of the 2019–2020 school year. ==Personal life==