Douglas Paul has an MA degree in Physics and Theoretical Physics and a PhD from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

He presently holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Emerging Technologies and he previously held an EPSRC Quantum Technology Fellowship awarded to provide leadership for the UK Quantum Technology Programme and an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. He was the first Director of the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre.

He is the principal investigator for the UK Hub for Quantum Enabled Position Navigation and Timing and a partner in the Integrated Quantum Network Hub. He has been involved in the UK Quantum Technology Programme from the start and was a partner in 3 of the 4 Hubs in Phase II.

Doug is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a chartered physicist, a chartered engineer and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

He was the recipient of the Institute of Physics President's Medal in 2014. Doug was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 New Years Honours for services to quantum technology research.

Doug's research uses micro-fabrication and nano-fabrication approaches to produce practical quantum technology systems for applications including position, navigation, timing, LiDAR, quantum imaging, memories, gravity imaging, sensing and secure communications.

He has supervised over 30 PhD students and 29 post doctoral researchers in Cambridge and Glasgow.

He has been principal investigator on over £71M of collaborative grants which included 10 Innovate UK grants with UK industry over the past 5 years and has multiple research contracts from industry.

Doug frequently gives outreach talks to the public at a range of events around the UK and annually gives invited presentations at many international conferences. Recordings of his lectures on Sustainable Energy are available here.

He presently sits on a number of government department committees and previously sat on the Home Office CBRN Scientific Advisory Committee. He was the U.K. representative to the NATO CBP Science Panel and presently sites on the EPSRC Scientific Advisory Team for ICT.

When not working Doug can frequently been seen out with the family or on a bicycle on the hills and paths around Glasgow. He still tries to find time to play the piano as well as keeping abreast of good wines after being a Wine Steward at St Edmund's College for many years.