Professor Palmer earned a BSc in Genetics from Glasgow University in 1985 and a PhD in Molecular Toxicology from the University of London in 1991. He worked as a American Heart Association postdoctoral fellow with Professor Eric Johnson at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California from 1991 to 1995, and joined the laboratory of Professor Roland Wolf at the Biomedical Research Centre in Ninewells Hospital in 1995. In 1998, Professor Palmer established his own laboratory at the Biomedical Research Centre, as a Principal Investigator and lecturer. Professor Palmer was appointed to the Personal Chair of Pharmacogenomics in 2008.