Professor Peters' research interests included electroanalytical chemistry; organic electrochemistry, with emphasis on mechanistic and synthetic aspects of the reduction of halogenated compounds; electrocatalysis and transition-metal mediated reactions for organic synthesis; chemically modified and polymer-coated electrodes for organic electrosynthesis and electrometric methods of detection and analysis.
Peters received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1962 and began his academic career at IU the same year. He was named the Herman T. Briscoe Professor in 1975.
Honors and awards include: Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, 1958-59; National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow, 1959-62; Ulysses G. Weatherly Award for Distinguished Teaching at IU, 1969; Students' Visiting Lecturers Trust Fund Lectureship at University of Natal, South Africa, 1975; Visiting Fellow, Japan Society for Promotion of Science, 1980; College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award from IU, 1984; Chemical Manufacturers Association National Catalyst Award for Outstanding Teaching, 1988; American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1990; and Alpha Lambda Delta Favorite Faculty Award at IU, 1995 and 2000; and James Flack Norris Award, of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society, for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry, 2001; Brown Derby Award, presented to an Outstnading and Popular Faculty Member by the Indiana University School of Professional Journalists, 2002; Henry B. Linford Award for Distinguished teaching, presented by The Electrochemical Society, 2002; and Distinguished Service Award, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2005.
