The author of over 475 publications and patents, Carter has delivered over 600 invited and plenary lectures worldwide and has served on advisory boards spanning a wide range of disciplines.

She earned her PhD in physical chemistry in 1987 from the California Institute of Technology, where she worked with William Andrew Goddard III, studying homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.

She also worked with James Hynes, Giovanni Ciccotti, and Ray Kapral to develop the widely used Blue Moon ensemble, a rare-event sampling method for condensed matter simulations.

[2] After a national search, Prof. Carter served from 2016 to 2019 as Dean of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science[13] and the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment.

[12][23] Applications include conversion of sunlight to electricity, clean and efficient use of biofuels and solid oxide fuel cells, and development of materials for use in fuel-efficient vehicles and fusion reactors.

She was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering (2016) for the development of quantum chemistry computational methods for the design of molecules and materials for sustainable energy.