Emeritus Professor, formerly the Challis Professor of Philosophy, at the University of Sydney.
Trained in philosophy of science at University of Cambridge and Australian National University, Paul specialises in assembling multi-disciplinary teams of philosophers and STEM researchers to address conceptual and theoretical questions in the life sciences. He played a substantial role in the establishment of the Charles Perkins Centre, the first and largest of Sydney’s multi-disciplinary institutes (MDIs), a research centre dedicated to easing the global burden of obesity, cardiovascular disease and related conditions and within which he led the…
Emeritus Professor, formerly the Challis Professor of Philosophy, at the University of Sydney.
Trained in philosophy of science at University of Cambridge and Australian National University, Paul specialises in assembling multi-disciplinary teams of philosophers and STEM researchers to address conceptual and theoretical questions in the life sciences. He played a substantial role in the establishment of the Charles Perkins Centre, the first and largest of Sydney’s multi-disciplinary institutes (MDIs), a research centre dedicated to easing the global burden of obesity, cardiovascular disease and related conditions and within which he led the Theory and Methods in Bioscience group
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of NSW, and was awarded the RSNSW Medal for History and Philosophy of Science in 2019.
He has been both a Laureate Fellow (2018) and a Federation Fellow (2007) of the Australian Research Council, each at the time the highest level of award available to an individual researcher in Australia. He was twice appointed to the Australian Health Ethics Committee, a Principal Committee of NHMRC (2006-9, 2009-12).
In 2022 Paul received the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Leadership Award and was named in a Stanford University study as as amongst the top 2% of influential academics worldwide. He retired at the beginning of 2024 to devote more time to his own research.