After graduating with an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2009, Paul took a short walk across the Queen's Lawn to Imperial's department of Chemistry, to begin his PhD with Professor Alan Armstrong. His PhD research focused on investigation of the mechanisms of secondary amine catalysed reactions.

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Upon completion of his PhD in 2013, Paul undertook a number of postdoctoral positions at institutions across the UK. His work involved computational study of a bimetallic ring opening polymerisation catalyst (Williams group, Imperial), materials synthesis using laser light in flow (Darr group, UCL), experimental and computational mechanistic investigation of hydroformylation and carbonylation reactions (Clarke group, St Andrews), and the use of flow as an enabling technology in synthetic chemistry (Ley group, Cambridge).

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In June 2018, Paul initiated his independent research career by joining the faculty at Queen's University Belfast as a Lecturer in Physical Organic Chemistry.