Paul has extensive experience and expertise in understanding the vulnerability of the food chain to contamination, whether by accident or malicious intent. Having participated in several EU projects designed to better understand the impact of serious contamination events on the food chain, he has brought to bear skills in emergency planning and business continuity as well as his analytical chemistry and biosecurity expertise.

Paul started his career as an analytical radiochemist working in the nuclear industry before moving to what is now Fera and developing expertise in food safety, trace metals analysis, veterinary drug residue testing, large scale biosecurity enhancement and advanced chemical analysis using non-targeted approaches, particularly for hazardous contaminants. Quality control at the “fit for purpose” level is a common theme across his career and he extended the application of his knowledge to helping investigations into sports doping issues many years ago. More recently, he has contributed significantly to a major EU project on enhancing plant/food chain biosecurity (which included chemical hazards). Safeguarding the food chain from challenging contamination events remains an ongoing interest.