Nauenberg published more than 1,000 papers in his career, focusing on the fundamental interaction of particles and origins of the universe in which we live. He founded the High Energy Physics group at CU Boulder and made numerous contributions to the fundamental parameters in the standard model of particle physics.

A proponent of the Superconducting Super Collider particle accelerator in Texas, he also worked on the high-energy electron-positron collider at Stanford University’s Linear Detector. He served as chair of the USERS Executive Committee of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and was a member of the SSC board of overseers, among other positions.