He specialises in the history of science in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England, particularly the work of Robert Boyle.

[1] Hunter's first monograph focused on the English antiquary and natural philosopher John Aubrey.

[4] Since then he has written extensively on the history of science and intellectual thought in England during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in particular the Royal Society.

[2] He received the 2011 Roy G. Neville Prize from the Chemical Heritage Foundation for his biographical work Boyle: Between God and Science.

[2] Hunter has been a wary defender of his turf, with scholars Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer observing he has been "consistently hostile" to their more recent work on Robert Boyle.