After beginning his career in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge, Paul Madden transferred to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in 1981. From 1984 to 2004, he was Fellow in Chemistry at The Queen’s College, Oxford and also Senior Tutor. From 2005 to 2008, he was Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions at the University of Edinburgh. He took up the office of Provost of The Queen’s College in August 2008.

Since the mid-1980s, Paul’s research career has been concerned with the development of computationally efficient methods for the simulation and prediction of materials properties at the atomistic level, with a particular focus on ionic materials and molten salts. He has published about 300 peer-reviewed articles and has an h-index of 60. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2001 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2006.