Dr. Palmer's undergraduate education culminated in a BS in Biology (summa cum laude) followed by a DVM from Kansas State University.  He completed a residency in comparative pathology in 1983 and is board-certified in anatomic pathology by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (1984).  With support from a NIH Fellowship, he completed a PhD in Microbiology in 1984 with dissertation research in rickettsial immunity. After an additional post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Palmer joined the faculty in the Departments of Comparative/Experimental Pathology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Florida.  Since 1988, with the exception of two years as a Senior Research Fellow in Switzerland and Spain, Dr. Palmer has been at Washington State University and, since 1993, Professor of Microbiology and Pathology.  Dr. Palmer's current research is focused in understanding antigenic variation of vector-borne pathogens at the in-host and population levels.  Genome sequencing approaches have progressed from completion of individual strains of the rickettsial Anaplasma marginale to examining large numbers of strains to better understand flow of strains under conditions of high transmission.  His research is supported by the NIH, USDA, and the Wellcome Trust and has resulted in >180 refereed publications including manuscripts in Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, Infection and Immunity, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Virology, Molecular Microbiology, Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, PNAS, and Science.  Dr. Palmer serves as Director of the NIH Immunology Training Program at Washington State University, Chair of the Graduate Program in Microbiology and Pathology, and is on the Steering Boards for the NIH Biotechnology Training Program and the University Biotechnology Center.  He is a current member of the NIH Host Interaction with Bacterial Pathogens study section and an advisor in animal diseases to the Wellcome Trust.  Dr. Palmer was elected to membership in the National Academies Institute of Medicine in 2006 and is a member of the Global Health Group within the Institute.
 
http://research.wsu.edu/national_academy/palmer.html
 
Publications

Useful Links
Dr. Palmer currently serves as  Chair of the Graduate Studies Program in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology [http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/graduate/VMP/], which provides MS and PhD level training; and as Director of the NIH Immunology Training Program [http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/research_vmp/itp/], which recruits post-DVM and post-PhD fellows for mentored laboratory training in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Molecular Biosciences. Additional training opportunities are available through the NIH Biotechnology Training Program [http://molecular.biosciences.wsu.edu/biotech.html]:

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