[6] Palais continues to do scholarly research on publishing a paper in the journal Social Sciences on the trends in animal cruelty from law enforcement agencies and how that relates to the potential for other crimes.

[15] In 2019, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) awarded Palais an honorary degree at its May 18 Commencement ceremony:[16] "...for her contributions to climate change research, studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica.

..." On September 27[7], the College of Engineering and Physical Science at UNH further honored Palais by naming her as its 2019 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to society.

In presenting the award Dean Zercher said that “Julie’s service at NSF positioned her as a leader of the glaciology scientific community, Her impact on the science and on the profession has been impressive...." In reply Julie remarked that the part of her career of which she was the most proud was her role in the development of the U.S. ice core community that analyzes ice cores for the evidence of climate change.

Despite her success as a scientist, she left academia to serve for at the National Science Foundation (NSF), guiding the Antarctic Glaciology program through a critical time of expansion.

In her role at NSF she also helped launch the successful careers of many young polar scientists and actively increased the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups in Antarctic research."