Faculty

Paul received his B.Sc. in Mathematics in 1981, an M.Sc. in Computer Science in 1982, and Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1987, all from the University of Toronto. He was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at M.I.T. for the 1986-87 academic year and joined the University of Washington in 1987.

Paul’s research is in pure and applied computational complexity. A major focus of his research is in proving lower bounds on the resources needed for solving computational problems. Such topics include communication complexity, time-space tradeoff lower bounds, circuit complexity, proof complexity, and data structures. Another focus of his research is on problems related to formal reasoning, including SAT-solving. His research includes applications of computational complexity in formal verification of software and hardware (currently focused on verifying non-linear arithmetic), in the study of databases, and in AI, particularly in knowledge representation, learning, and probabilistic inference.

Paul enjoys squash, softball and other sports where enthusiasm can compensate for a lack of talent.