Gambini returned to Uruguay in 1987 after democracy had returned to the country. Gambini has published over 100 scientific articles ranging from philosophy of science and foundations of quantum mechanics to lattice gauge theories to quantum gravity. He was head of the Pedeciba, the main funding agency for basic sciences in Uruguay (2003–2008). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for Advancement of Science, a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, the Latin American Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Exact and Natural Sciences of Argentina. He is the 2003 winner of the Third World Academy of Sciences prize in physics and has received numerous distinctions in Uruguay. In particular he was awarded the 2004 Presidential Medal of Science, the Prize to the Intellectual Work in 2011 and made an honorary doctorate of the University of the Republic in 2010.