Paul works with students and international colleagues on a variety of projects in sedimentary geology and Earth history. He has an active National Science Foundation (NSF) grant with a colleague at MIT for the experimental study of the underlying dynamics that govern how wave ripples in sand form and change geometry. He also has a NASA grant for the study of fossils of the oldest multicellular organisms. Paul works on Paleozoic rocks in localities across the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. He has many other active projects from Antarctica to the western U.S. Recent work has resulted in a number of journal articles co-authored with CC students.