Paul joined Aston University as a senior lecturer in Computer Science in April 2019. After completing a PhD at Lancaster University in 2004 he undertook postdoctoral research positions at both Lancaster University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven where his research focused on complex distributed systems and interoperability. He subsequently joined IT Innovation, an applied research centre in Southampton where he worked as an engineer and project manager on industry-led research projects. There he worked on projects to secure pan-european distributed infrastructures, and develop commercial privacy-as-a-service technologies.

Paul's research concentrates on the engineering of complex distributed systems. His research has centered on the development of next generation middleware technologies to automatically handle such problems as interoperability and heterogeneous communication networks. He pioneered early solutions in the field of dynamic interoperability; and received funding under the H2020 FIESTA-IoT project to develop automated interoperability testing of IoT and Cloud systems. His current research focuses on the engineering of secure systems. He has developed privacy modelling solutions of data-centred online services to dynamically identify privacy risks. He is also interested in the development of runtime solutions to perform security and privacy risk assesment and mitigation in deployed systems. 

• PhD Computing, Lancaster University (2004)
• MSc Distributed Interactive Systems, Lancaster University (2000)
• BSc Computer Science, University of York (1999)

Current teaching:

• DG1CYF Cybersecurity Fundamentals
• CS3CCL Cyber Crime, Cyber Law and Privacy
• CS3RMP Security Governance, Risk Management and Policy
• DO1CFC Cybersecurity Fundamentals and Applied Cryptography
• DO4SOP Security Operations and Privacy

Previous teaching:

• CS2SNS Secure Network Services
• CS2OS Operating Systems
• CS1STF Security Thinking and Fundamentals
• DC1170 Computer Systems and Networks

• Senior Lecturer, Aston University (April 2019 - present)
• Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton (April 2018 - March 2019)
• Senior Research Engineer, IT Innovation Centre (March 2013 - March 2018)
• Senior Resarch Associate, Lancaster University (February 2008 - February 2013)
• Scientific Researcher, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (May 2007 - February 2008)
• Research Associate, Lancaster University (October 2003 - May 2007)