Dr. Debra Peterson is a former graduate school colleague of Dr. Hans Zarkov's. In , she visited Zarkov to evaluate whether he should be given a grant for his research. After Zarkov tried to present himself as being a normal and sane scientist, she decided to not give him the grant, because she preferred him to be an eccentric "outside-of-the-box"-type scientist. Before she left, Zarkov tried to convince her that he was that type of a scientist, but it was too late.