[2] Petters is a founder of mathematical astronomy, focusing on problems connected to the interplay of gravity and light and employing tools from astrophysics, cosmology, general relativity, high energy physics, differential geometry, singularities, and probability theory.

Petters was also the dean of academic affairs for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and associate vice provost for undergraduate education at Duke University (2016-2019).

[4] Petters was raised by his grandparents in the rural community of Dangriga, Belize (formerly Stann Creek Town, British Honduras).

[13] His work culminated in book, entitled Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing (Springer 2012), which he co-authored with Harold Levine and Joachim Wambganns.

[14] The book drew upon powerful tools from the theory of singularities and put the subject of weak-deflection k-plane gravitational lensing on a rigorous and unified mathematical foundation.

During the period from 2005 to 2007, Petters collaborated with astronomers and physicists to explore gravitational lensing in directions beyond its traditional confines in astronomy.

[20] Their findings were applied to the Galactic black hole, binary pulsars, and gravitational microlensing scenarios to make testable predictions about lensed images and their time delays.

[19] Another paper took on the difficult issue of how to test hyperspace models like braneworld gravity that postulate an extra dimension to physical space.

Werner found a system of equations that can be applied to test the Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis observationally using the realistic case of lensing by a Kerr black hole.

[41] He was won an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Mathematics (1998),[42] and a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (1998),[43] and was the first winner of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize (2002).

[45] In 2008 Petters was also included among the Human Relations Associates' list of "The Twenty-Five Greatest Scientists of African Ancestry,"going back to the eighteenth century.