[14][15] With Vince Gaffney and Robin Allaby, he has applied shotgun metagenomics to sedimentary ancient DNA samples, showing the presence of wheat in the British Isles 2000 years earlier than expected.
[20][21][22][23] In 2020, the CLIMB project received the HPCWire Readers’ Best High Performance Computing Collaboration Award for supporting analysis and publication of coronavirus genome sequences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[25][26] Subsequently, in an opinion piece in the journal New Microbes and New Infections [27] and an invited talk for Bergey's International Society for Microbial Systematics,[28] Pallen outlined his ideas for making bacterial nomenclature more accessible.
[30] In March 2021, Pallen suggested in an Opinion article in New Scientist that an alternative should be found to the use of geographical names for variants of SARS-CoV-2, raiding the classical world for options.
[36] In the wake of the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, he wrote a review with Nick Matzke, outlining the evidence that the bacterial flagellum is an evolved rather than designed entity.
[37] He commissioned and peer-reviewed Baba Brinkman's Rap Guide to Evolution and was responsible for recruiting Alice Roberts to the role of Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.