Dr. Paul holds a Diploma in Agriculture from the Guyana School of Agriculture (1989), a BSc in Agronomy (1997) and MSc in Plant Pathology (1999) from the Federal University of Vicosa, Brazil, and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology, with a minor in Statistics from Iowa State University (2003). In 2003, He joined the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University (OSU) as a Postdoctoral Researcher, was promoted to Research Scientist in 2005, and appointed Assistant Professor in 2006.

He is currently a Professor, Plant Disease Epidemiologist, State Extension Specialist, and Associate Chair in the Department of Plant Pathology at OSU, with 16 years of research, teaching, mentoring, and extension experience. His training and professional experience total more than 30 years of agricultural research, of which 20 have been spent working directly with cereal crops such as corn, wheat, and barley. He is an international leader in the study of epidemiology and integrated management of diseases and mycotoxins in corn and wheat. His research focuses on, among other things, developing disease and mycotoxin prediction and risk assessment models, meta-analytic synthesis of research findings, and efficacy and economic analysis of crop production and disease management programs.

He is the coordinator of the United State Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative Integrated Management Project and a member of the U.S. National Wheat Improvement Committee, among other service activities. Dr. Paul has advised/co-advised fifteen graduate students (8 Ph.D. and 7 MSc), given numerous scholarly and extension presentations, authored/coauthored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, and earned millions of dollars in funding to support his research and extension programs on corn and wheat.