His primary interests focus on chloroplast biochemistry and particularly lipid-protein particles contained within chloroplasts called plastoglobules. Peter completed his PhD at Cornell University, studying chloroplast proteomics, and was an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral fellow in Düsseldorf, Germany, before completing a second post-doctoral appointment at the Noble Research Institute. Here, he studied small signalling peptides in Medicago truncatula, seeking to understand their relationship to macronutrient limitation and nodulation.