Professor Lyle Palmer is an internationally renowned geneticist and epidemiologist who is expert in the genetics of complex respiratory diseases. He plays key roles in a number of clinical teams in Australia, the UK and the US involving genetics research into asthma, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, cancer, fetal growth regulation and diabetes. His group is also active in methodological research in statistical genomics and medical informatics.

Prof Palmer is the Foundation Chair in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Western Australia, where he is also a Professor in the Schools of Medicine & Pharmacology and Population Health. He is the founder of the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology in the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (www.genepi.org.au). Before returning to Western Australia (WA) in mid-2003, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Statistical Genomics at the Channing Laboratory, Boston.

Prof Palmer has overall responsibility for enabling the internationally unique population-based clinical and epidemiological research programs in WA to be expanded into the areas of genetics and genomics. He is the initiator and Director of the Western Australian Genetic Epidemiology Resource (WAGER). Prof Palmer's group will be piloting a Western Australian Genome Health Project in 2006 - this project aims to establish a BioBank containing a DNA sample from all consenting Western Australians (~2 million people).

Prof Palmer has been recognized for his leadership role in biomedical research by numerous awards, including Fulbright and Churchill Fellowships. In 2001, Prof Palmer was appointed the youngest ever section editor for the "Encyclopedia of Biostatistics" (EOB), the standard international reference work for biostatistics. Since completing his PhD in 1998, he has chaired and/or given invited symposia at over 30 international scientific meetings, has delivered over 60 invited lectures, has produced over 120 publications, and has co-edited a commercially successful encyclopedia of genetic statistics that has become a standard reference. In 2005 he was recognized as the "Best Business Talent Under 40" by the business community of Western Australia and was named an "Inspirational Western Australian". He is in high demand internationally as a speaker and teacher.

Foundation Chair in Genetic Epidemiology
University of Western Australia
Ground floor, B Block
Hospital Avenue
Nedlands WA 6009
Australia

Phone: +61 8 9346 106
Fax: +61 8 9346 1818
lyle@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
http://www.genepi.org.au/