After serving in the US Air Force, Paul earned his BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering at Stanford University. He then worked in Stanford’s Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience Laboratory, deploying research equipment all over the world from the South Pole to northern Greenland and on various platforms including sub-orbital rockets and high-altitude balloons.

In 1995 he turned his attention in the opposite direction and began working at MBARI, where he builds instruments and vehicles for ocean research. He has designed parts of many MBARI vehicles including ROVs, AUVs, drifters, and benthic crawlers, as well as numerous instruments including cameras, seismometers, and chemical sensors.