After graduating from Staten Island Academy in 1950,[1] he received a BSEE from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1955.

[2] Peoples joined Fermilab as a physicist in 1971,[2] eventually becoming head of the Proton Area.

[4] Peoples left Fermilab briefly from 1987 to 1988 to assist the Central Design Group for the Superconducting Super Collider at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

After Leon M. Lederman stepped down from the Fermilab directorship, Peoples became director on July 1, 1989.

He stepped down from his position as Fermilab director in June 1999[4] In addition to his work at Fermilab, Peoples managed the shutdown of Superconducting Super Collider between 1993 and 1994, served as chairman of the International Committee for Future Accelerators, a working group of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, from 1993 to 1997,[6] and was director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from June 1998 to June 2003.