Physicist, teacher, author, and rock climber.
After graduating summa cum laude from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT class of 1970, physics) he earned his Ph.D. in solid-state physics from MIT in 1974.
In 1986, Paul came to the Exploratorium Teacher Institute and began his exhibit-based explorations in science. He became the co-director of the Teacher Institute in 1990 and the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in 1992. Since 1997 he has been a senior staff scientist at the Exploratorium. In 2002 he was awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award by the American Association of Physics teachers. In 2003 he was given the NSTA's Faraday Award for excellence as a science communicator.
As an author, Paul has written over three dozen articles for Exploring magazine. For the Exploratorium Press he has co-authored the Exploratorium Science Snackbook, and the bookSquare Wheels with Don Rathjen, and he was the scientist for the Exploratopia, which was chosen by the AAAS as the best children's science book of 2007. For Klutz Press he has co-written the Explorabook which has sold over a million copies, and also the Book of Magnetic Magic, the Zap book, and Glove Compartment Science. For Chronicle Press with Pat Murphy he has written: The Color of Nature and Traces of Time. Paul is a regular science columnist for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
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