[2][3] In 1955, Slater joined the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam, where he remained until retiring in 1985.

[3][4] Slater managed the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, turning it into one of the most influential publications in the field.

[5] Slater made contributions to the identification and understanding of the physiological role of the components of the respiratory chain, especially of the various cytochrome b complexes, iron–sulfur proteins and other iron-containing substances.

He showed that the binding of certain inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation acting at different sites (antimycin on electron transport, oligomycin on the coupling between electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation, and aurovertin in the ATP-synthesising enzyme) can be positively cooperative, and that the degree of cooperativity depends on the state of the mitochondrial membrane.

[6][7] In 1984, he was appointed a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and in 1985 he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.