[10] Place earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences with an NIH Predoctoral Fellowship from The Johns Hopkins University in 1973.

Under the guidance of Dennis Powers during his doctoral research, he delved into exploring the functional significance of allelic variation in lactate dehydrogenases from Fundulus heteroclitus, a common nearshore minnow along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

In his early work, he investigated the biochemical processes governing the digestion of distinctive food sources, such as wax esters, leading to the establishment of a new research area.

[23] Collaborating with Yukinori Kazeto and John M Trant, he further investigated the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) on the reproductive physiology of zebrafish juveniles.

The study suggested differential transcriptional modulation of CYP19 genes, indicating potential disruptions in developmental and reproductive physiology, particularly in neural tissue.

[24] With a focus on growing dinoflagellate cultures, Place has investigated the toxicity of Karlodinium veneficum, shedding light on its role in fish kills along the Atlantic coast.

[26] Over the past two decades, his research at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology has focused on examining this microscopic algal cell, linking Karlodinium blooms to fish kills along the Atlantic coast.