Tracy Palmer is a British microbiologist who is a professor of microbiology in the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University in Tyne & Wear, England.

Palmer attended the University of Birmingham where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry in 1988[4] followed by a PhD in 1992 for research investigating the enzyme kinetics of the proton pumping transhydrogenase from photosynthetic bacteria.

[12] Palmer's early career included a postdoctoral research position at the University of Dundee (1992-1993) where she was a member of Professor David H. Boxer's group in the Department of Biochemistry.

In 2004, Palmer was awarded a MRC Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship and was promoted to a personal chair in molecular microbiology by the University of East Anglia.

While in Norwich Palmer began a long collaboration with Professor Ben C. Berks FRS (now of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford).

She is now head of the research theme Microbes in Health & Disease, which is part of the Newcastle Biosciences Institute (NUBI) within the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS).