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Last updated 8th April 2025

After graduating in 1996 with a first degree in Mechanical Engineering, Paul joined a research group at Manchester Metropolitan University developing automotive safety systems. In 1998 he embarked upon a PhD programme studying contact mechanics and wheel-rail interaction on a scaled railway roller rig. During this time he became a founder member of the Rail Technology Unit (RTU), a group which specialised in railway vehicle dynamics and wheel rail interaction.

The RTU became a successful and well respected research and enterprise group and in 2012 transferred to the University of Huddersfield to form the Institute of Railway Research (IRR). Paul joined UoH as the assistant director of the IRR and held a central role in developing the group from 9 to over 30 full time staff with an annual expenditure of £3m.

As Principal Investigator for the £22m RGF funded Centre for Innovation in Rail (CIR) project, its £4m capital grant facilitated his work in leading the design and delivery of the £2.5m HAROLD test facility which has been core to the IRR's bogie dynamics, adhesion and braking research activities since its launch in 2016. The CIR project was a catalyst for growth of the IRR, generating 13 research staff posts and establishing a successful model for SMEs to work in partnership with academia. The CIR project met its contracted grant targets, creating a total of 50 new jobs, and safeguarding a further 40 with our partner Unipart Rail Ltd.

Paul's professional standing has been recognised through Fellowships of both the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Chartered Management Institute. He is a member of a number of railway industry research and advisory panels and has been called upon to provide advice to support directorate level decisions for HS2 and contributed to governmental responses to the DfT and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for BEIS. He has provided expert witness depositions both nationally and internationally and commented on behalf of the University via BBC television evening news and written press articles in the Mail on Sunday, the Huddersfield Examiner, Modern Railways and Railway Strategy magazine.

Paul’s enterprise and research activities inlclude over 100 technical reports for industry and 50 academic papers, with research and consultancy funding in excess of £10m. He has led the initiation of many new University relationships and funding streams with key railway sector partners including Network Rail, HS2, Crossrail, Unipart Rail Ltd and Alstom.

Paul became Director of the Institute of Railway Research in July 2022 and Associate Dean (RIKE) within the School of Computing and Engineering in January 2023.