Lucy Palmer obtained a Masters in Science from the University of Minnesota and was awarded with a Ph.D. from the Australian National University in 2008 under the supervision of Greg Stuart. She then completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland and Humboldt University, Berlin in the laboratory of Matthew Larkum before returning to Australia to head the Neural Network Laboratory at the Florey Institute in 2013. Her laboratory investigates the dendritic activity and underlying neural networks contributing to sensory perception and behavior in the mammalian brain.