Dr. Petersen graduated in 1976 from the University of Copenhagen in Environmental Biology. She has worked for several years with Arctic environmental protection organisations related to oil exploration and mining in Greenland. For 13 years she acted as the Director of the Arctic Department of Environment, under the Ministry for Environment. In 2001, she was appointed Director for the Danish Polar Center, and since June 2007 she has worked with International Polar Affairs in the Ministry for Science Technology and Development.
Since the founding of the the Arctic Council, Dr. Petersen has participated and served for four years as Chair for the working group Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program. Furthermore, she was a member of the Assessment Steering Committee for producing the “Arctic Climate Impact assessment.”
Dr. Petersen has been a member of the following boards: GRID-ARENDAL (Global Resource Information Database), UNEP Norway 1996 – 2002; the Danish/Greenlandic Commission for Science in Greenland; the Norwegian National Committee on Polar Research; the Regional Board in International Arctic Science Committee; The Executive in European Polar Board; and since 2003, with the ICSU initiated planning group for the International Polar Year and the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning “ICARP” 2005 in Copenhagen .