Peterlin was born in
Ljubljana, Slovenia. After receiving his D. Sc. in
physics from
Humboldt University of Berlin in Berlin, Germany in 1938, Peterlin accepted in 1939 the chair as a professor of physics at the
University of Ljubljana, where he remained for 22 years. Besides his pedagogical duties, he accepted in 1947 the position of the founding director of the
Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana. In 1960, Peterlin left his home country. In order to be able to continue his theoretical research on
macromolecules he accepted the position of a full professor and head of the Institute of Physics at the
Technical University of Munich, Germany. Only a year later he relocated to
North Carolina where he was entrusted with the directorship of the newly founded Camille Dreyfus Laboratory at the
Research Triangle Institute, which was almost entirely devoted to basic research on
polymers. He also served as adjunct professor at
Duke University. Upon his mandatory retirement in 1973 at age 65, Peterlin left for
Washington, DC to become a senior scientist at the
National Bureau of Standards, now
National Institute of Science and Technology, a post he held until 1984. ==Recognition and legacy==