[5] He has held visiting, adjunct, and research collaboration positions at other institutions worldwide including the University of Canterbury and TU Wien.
[5][9][10] Peterson's research has focused on developing and understanding cartographic and GIS practices, ethics, and applications.
[11] Peterson has investigated topics including animated mapping, computer cartography, and distributed GIS.
[6] He has also held leadership positions in the journal Cartography and Geographic Information Science and chaired an International Cartographic Association commission on maps and the internet.
[15] Peterson wrote entries for choropleth mapping, isoline, and Web GIS in the Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Science.