Paul’s research interests centre on understanding plant-soil interactions and improving soil health. With over 70 papers, 3 of which having received enough citations to place them in the top 1% of their academic field based on publication year (Essential Science Indicators).

Paul has also written the chapter on high-resolution analysis in the authoritative subject related book “DGT for Environmental Measurement” Cambridge University Press, which is part of the Environmental Chemistry Series and he has an h-index of 31. In 2009 his work on arsenic in rice was identified by Thompson Reuters, Essential Science Indicators, November 2009, Environment & Ecology category as the most cited paper in the Fast Moving Front “Arsenic Speciation”.

Over the past 17 years Paul's focus has been to identify and attempt to correct the hidden inequality existing in global diets, a quest that’s taken him to the tannery slums of Dhaka, through to inaccessible mountain-dwelling communities in China poisoned by selenium – an element more commonly viewed in the “West” as being a super-nutrient, and the rice paddies projects of Sekinchan - a vital part of Malaysia’s food security strategy. Paul is currently researching the scientific/agronomic potential of a technology called DGT that can be used to analyse soil/water quality, in a bid to evaluate agro-ecosystem sustainability/health.