Prem S. Paul became Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) on July 1, 2001. He assumed additional duties and the title of Dean of Graduate Studies on July 1, 2002. During his first four years at UNL, total research funding has doubled and UNL faculty have landed several prestigious grants, including a Mathematics and Science Partnership grant and the ANDRILL project from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and biodefense, hemophilia, and school readiness grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During the same time, several federally-funded multidisciplinary research centers have been established at UNL, including a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and the Plant Genomics Center funded by NSF, the Nebraska Center for Virology and the Redox Biology Center funded by NIH, and the National Drought Mitigation Center funded by USDA.

Before coming to Nebraska, Paul was a faculty member at Iowa State University, where he also served as Associate Vice Provost for Research from January 1, 2000 - June 30, 2001, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine 1993 - 1999, and Assistant Director of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station from 1996-2000. Prior to that he spent seven years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA.

Paul's scientific expertise is in virology. He earned his D.V.M. from the College of Veterinary Sciences at Panjab Agricultural University in India in 1969. He obtained his Ph.D. in veterinary microbiology from the University of Minnesota in 1975 and was board-certified in veterinary microbiology in 1977.

Paul has published more than 97 papers in refereed journals and numerous books and book chapters and review articles. His most recent publication was a review of swine exogenous viruses in a special volume of Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology focused on xenotransplantation. His research has been funded by grants from USDA, NIH, commodity organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. He also received a T-35 grant from the NIH-NCRR to train veterinary medical students in biomedical research and several grants from the Merck Company Foundation for the Merck-Merial Veterinary Scholars program. He received the SmithKline Beecham Award for Research Excellence in 1991. While at Iowa State, Paul advised 26 graduate students and mentored four postdoctoral fellows and 12 visiting scientists in his laboratory.

Paul has served on numerous review panels for NIH, USDA, and NSF and on the FDA's subcommittee on xenotransplantation from 1997 - 1999. He was elected to the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) Council on Research from 1996 - 2003 and served on the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)'s Research Deans and Directors Steering Committee from 1995 - 1997. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Veterinary Microbiology and Animal Health Research Reviews. In 2005, he served on the National Academies Committee on "Policy Implications of International Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States." He is currently on the NASULGC Council on Research Policy and Graduate Education, the EPSCOR coalition board, and is the President of the Council of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. He was recently honored with the University of Nebraska Office Personnel Association Floyd S. Oldt Boss of the Year Award.

Paul is a member of the AVMA, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American College of Veterinary Microbiologists, American Society for Virology, Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.