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Paul is adjunct Associate Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University. His research career started with a PhD looking at Australian fossil crocodiles at UNSW after a double major in geology and zoology at Sydney University. His current research interests include Australian fossil crocodiles, dinosaurs and marine reptiles with a growing interest in opalised vertebrate fossils from Australia's opal fields.
Paul’s career in science communications has seen him on television across the country with the ABC and acting as Director at the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus). His Directorship of RiAus spanned 6 years during which he established Australia’s Science Channel. Paul spent fourteen years with the ABC as a dedicated science reporter mostly on the TV science program Catalyst.
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Paul’s current venture, Palaeo Pictures, is a video production company that combines his experience in the media with his research in palaeontology to produce documentaries about fossils, dinosaurs and life in the past.
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Paul has spent time as a museum curator in natural history and a live presenter of science to early-aged school children. He’s acted as an expert guide for tour companies operating in Antarctica and western USA and has authored several books on geology, palaeontology and natural history themes.
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Paul currently owns and runs his own research media company, Media Engagement Services​, specialising in teaching researchers how to communicate their research and creating video documentaries of research projects.
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Paul's career as a science reporter/producer exposed him to a wide diversity of areas of research, not only across the sciences, but also in areas such health and medical research, agriculture, engineering, mining and veterinary sciences.
His research career gave him a fundamental understanding of the research environment in Australia including the pressures on researchers to conduct successful research and to attract maximum funding for their research activities.
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Paul's sees the R&D Tax Incentive (RDTI) scheme as a source of funds for research and development that is under utilised. He wants to inspire companies across Australia to do more R&D encouraged by the generous tax offsets provided by the RDTI.
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"Australia's R&D effort is below the OECD average." Paul explains, "We also have a lack of research conducted by the private sector in comparison to the rest of the world. I hope to help Australian companies to do more research and development encouraged by access to the RDTI."
"We need to lift the national research effort and that's exactly what the RDTI is there for."