Per Peterson recognizes that our current reliance on fossil fuels comes at an enormous cost to our public health. As a professor and William and Jean McCallum Floyd Endowed Chair in the Nuclear Engineering Department at UC Berkeley, Peterson's research focuses energy and environmental systems, including high-temperature reactors, high level nuclear waste processing, and nuclear materials management. He is also Chief Nuclear Officer for Kairos Power.

Peterson has been honored as a Presidential Young Investigator and an American Nuclear Society Fellow. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1988.