Dr Anna Palmer

Anna is an environmental epidemiologist at Burnet Institute. Her research focuses on the health impacts of climate change, with a particular interest in how extreme weather events affect maternal, child and adolescent health.

Anna’s work involves analysing large and complex environmental datasets and linking them to health outcomes across diverse settings. She uses a range of epidemiologic and econometric methods to examine how different environmental exposures influence health vulnerability.

Anna completed a PhD in epidemiology at McGill University in 2025, where her doctoral research quantitatively assessed the relationship between extreme weather events and rates of child marriage in more than 60 countries. She also holds a master’s degree in mathematics.

• 2025: PhD Epidemiology, McGill University, Canada
• 2019: Master of Mathematical Sciences (Advanced), Australian National University, Australia
• 2016: Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours), Monash University, Australia
• 2015: Bachelor of Biomedicine, University of Melbourne, Australia

• 2025–present: Environmental Epidemiologist, Burnet Institute, Australia
• 2024–2025: Visiting Student Researcher, University of California Berkeley, United States
• 2023: Teaching Assistant, McGill University, Canada
• 2017–2021: Research Assistant, Burnet Institute, Australia

• 2024: Doctoral Scholarship, Fonds de recherche du Québec–Santé, Canada
• 2022: Lloyd Carr-Harris Studentship, McGill University, Canada