[2][4][8][9] During his career, Carpenter has held a number of term appointments at public and private institutions, including Visiting Scientist at Phillips Petroleum Company, Nuclear Technology Branch, Idaho Falls, Idaho, Fall 1965; Argonne National Laboratory, Solid State Science Division, 1971–1972, 1973; Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Physics Division, 1973; and the Japanese Laboratory for High Energy Physics, Kō Enerugī Kasokuki Kenkyū Kikō, (KEK), 1982 and 1993.

He has also served as senior physicist and manager for the Argonne National Laboratory, Solid State Science Division, Intense Pulsed Neutron Source Project, 1975–1978; technical director for the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source Project, 1978; senior technical advisor for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Spallation Neutron Source project, Experimental Facilities Division, 1998, and the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, periodically since 1997; and as adjunct professor of nuclear engineering and member of the graduate faculty of Iowa State University, 1987–1989.

3,778,627), and co-authored two books, Living With Nuclei: 50 Years in the Nuclear Age, Memoirs of a Japanese Physicist with Motoharu Kimura.

[11] Carpenter associated with the AES Division of the Advanced Photon Source,[1] an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Argonne National Laboratory.

He consulted at the Spallation Neutron Source, was a visiting professor of physics at Indiana University,[1] was the spokesperson for the Union of Compact Accelerator-Driven Neutron Sources (UCANS), and was active in the preservation and communication of the history of nuclear engineering, with emphasis on how its development relates to current and future technologies.