Dr Paul D Watson

Paul is currently the Academic Lead for Civil, Fire and Energy Engineering. He is responsible for the team management of 24 academic staff teaching a suite of civil, fire and energy engineering based degrees in the UK, Hong, Kong, Oman, Qatar and Malaysia.

He also has over 15 years of experience in the area of Academic Quality, having chaired and been involved with numerous validations, academic reviews, and professional body accreditations both internally and externally across England and Wales.

His research interests in the field of Geotechnical Engineering tend to focus on topics associated with soil laboratory testing methods and slope stability analyses. Current areas of interest include remediation of oil contaminated soils; and the stability of historic railway embankments in the UK.

Paul started his career as an optimisation process engineer with Thames Water after graduating in 1987 before moving back into academia in 1988 to study for a PhD in Geotextile Filters at Queen Mary, London. Before the completion of his PhD, he joined Kingston University in 1992 as a junior academic in civil engineering, successfully gaining his doctorate in 1995.

In 2000, he took the bold step to leave academia and return to industry, spending 5 years in the mobile telecoms training arena gaining valuable skills in business development and management. In 2005, he moved to the University of Portsmouth and the Department of Civil Engineering and quickly progressed first to Course Leader in 2008 and then to Director of Taught Programmes in 2011 for the School of Civil Engineering & Surveying managing a team of 8 course leaders.

Paul then joined the University of Central Lancashire in October 2015 as Academic Lead for the Construction and Civil Engineering team, primarily joining to oversee the start and development of the new Civil Engineering courses, successfully leading the civil engineering to accreditation of their BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering programme in November 2019. In August 2023, he became the Academic Lead for the Civil, Energy and Fire Engineering, leading a team of 24 academics teaching a suite of UG and PG degrees in those disciplines in the UK, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar and Malaysia.

His research interests include coastal landslides of the UK, with particular reference to the Isle of Wight; filter and drainage geotextiles; landslides and cess pit drainage; and soils laboratory testing. Latterly his research has moved into the field of ground improvement, encompassing such topics as geotextile strength testing, cement soil interaction, and the remediation of oil contaminated soils. Paul also has a working interest in the stability of railway embankments in the UK, both on the national and heritage rail networks.