He first entered the graduate program at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory as a student of Maurice Ewing and later, Bruce Heezen receiving an M. Phil.
After graduating, Perfit became a Research Fellow in geochemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia for 5 years where he investigated island arc volcanoes and submarine ridges in the southwest Pacific.
Perfit has participated on 25 oceanographic expeditions, taken more than 40 dives to depths up to 12,000 feet in the Human Occupied deep-sea submersible HOV ALVIN and more recently has used a variety of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to study and sample the seafloor.
Perfit has served as the UNOLS Chair of the Deep Submergence Science Committee (DeSSC) and as a Trustee of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (C)L).
[7] The highly illustrated book is entitled “Discovering the Deep: A Photographic Atlas of the Seafloor” by Jeff Karson, Deb Kelley, Dan Fornari, Mike Perfit and Tim Shank.