Prof. Tally Palmer

Tally Palmer is the Executive Director: Applied Research and Innovation for the National Research Foundation (NRF). Prof Palmer was Professor of Water Resources and Director: Institute for Water and Environmental Resources Management at the University of Technology, Sydney Australia.

She has a PhD in Zoology and a career in applied water research in the context of catchments and water as a key strategic natural resource. Previously, she held the positions of Professor: Institute for Water Research (IWR) at Rhodes University: Director: Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality within the Institute for Water Research and Senior Research Officer, IWR, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Prof Palmer is a member of the Australian Water Association, the Australasian Society for Ecotoxicology and an alternate UTS Board Member of the Sydney Institute for Marine Science. Before moving to Australia from South Africa, she served two three-year terms on the board of the Water Research Commission, was involved in the review of the water law in SA and appointed by the then-Minister of Water Affairs, Prof Kader Asmal, as alternate chair of the Water Law Review Panel; and served on the Water Law Review Steering Committee. She also served on the National Water Advisory Council in SA for a three-year term of office.

She is a riverine aquatic ecologist who has broad experience in aquatic ecosystem and pollution research and research applications in water resource management. It is vital to make research useful to water resource users, managers, and decision-makers. Prof. Palmer now focuses on the ways in which new thinking about integration can assist natural resource managers take account of a wide variety of data, information and knowledge in the search for innovative approaches to resource sustainability.