Pete is a geoscientist with interests across Earth, environmental, and planetary science. His work includes geochemical, isotopic, and geochronologic approaches to understanding subsurface fluid-rock systems, thermochronology, tectonics, geomorphology, and petrology.

He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and Geological Society of America, was a Scholar in the Earth System Evolution Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) for ten years, and served as Dean of Faculty of Environment at UNBC, and Head of Geosciences and Associate Dean of Research in the College of Science at the University of Arizona.