Paul is Bernal Chair of Composite Materials and their Structures at UL and is also Professor in Lightweight Structures at the University of Bristol. Paul is considered an authority in the field of structural mechanics for composite materials, a pioneer in morphing composite structures, and an expert in the structural mechanics of buckling and postbuckling of optimised composite structures. He has also contributed to the development of novel manufacturing technologies for composites (Continuous Tow Shearing) and (Tape Spreading) applied to advanced tape placement. According to Scopus, he has published in excess of 300 journal articles alongside a similar number of conference contributions.

He exploits the stiffness tailoring capability of composite structures and applies this knowledge to the design of aircraft, rocket structures, high performance yachts and wind turbine blades to name just a few application areas. He studies the interactions between (mostly) mechanical properties of materials and structural geometry and models their effect on the overall performance of  structures that move. Such structures place a premium on being lightweight and being efficient or ‘slippy’ in the medium they move, whether it is air or water! Using such principles, he has designed helicopter blades with in-built material anisotropy to reduce vibrations in the rotor blades of the EH101 (Merlin) helicopter, created buckling formulae for lightweight anisotropic aircraft and space structures as used by Airbus, Boeing and NASA and devised highly efficient mathematical models for slender structures that have been adopted by commercial LUSAS finite element software.

His analytical solutions for anisotropic plate and shell buckling have been adopted into design codes, e.g. Airbus’s LAGRANGE multidisciplinary optimisation code and also led to a 15 year consultancy (2001-2015) with NASA Langley. Regarding shape changing or morphing structures, he has led the development of morphing trailing edge flaps for Leonardo Helicopters (US Patent 8,191,826) as well as with Vestas Wind Systems for wind turbine blades (DK Patent 70,059). Prof Weaver founded the Preferred Partnership in Composites with Vestas Wind systems in 2008, and his team were selected to be their partner in composite technologies after a global search. In 2016, Prof Weaver led the successful bid to become a strategic partner of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (2016-2022).

Early work outlining the potential and structural problems associated with morphing aerofoils is now the most cited paper in the world’s oldest aerospace journal: “The Aeronautical Journal” (doi.org/10.1017/S0001924000002062), and in “Thin-Walled Structures” various morphing structural concepts were introduced that is now within the top 20 cited in this journal (doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2007.11.002).

To enable lighter, thin-walled structures often requires enhanced resistance to buckling. As such, Prof Weaver and co-workers patented (2011, “Tow Placement Apparatus and Methods”, UK patent no. GB1111702.5) a new manufacturing process on continuous tow shearing (doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2012.02.024) which then was spun-out as iCOMAT. More recently, Weaver led the development of another method for tape placement, tape spreading, which in 2021 won the prestigious JEC Global Composites award given to the PhD project with the most commercial promise in the field of composites (doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108967) leading to worldwide patents including US20220184898A1.

• Keynote/Plenary Lectures in last 10 years: European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Lisbon (ECCOMAS 2024); International Conference on Composite Materials, Belfast (ICCM 2023); American Society of Composites, Seattle (ASC 2018); International Conference on Composite Structures, Porto (ICCS 2018 and ICCS 2022); Canadian-International Conference on Composites, Montreal, (Cancom 2022;, Royal Aeronautical Society Aicraft Structures Conference 2018; Smart Actuation 2016 Sheffield; International Conference on Composite Materials and Structures (ICMMS), India, 2017

In recognition of his technical excellence Prof Weaver received the following personal awards:

• ASC-AIAA James H Starnes Award (2025)
• Royal Society Wolfson Merit award (2017-2022)
• Collier Hipersizer Best Structures paper, at Scitech conference (2015 and 2018)
• Inaugural Ephrahim Garcia best paper award in field of Smart materials and structures for best paper published in 2014. Awarded by the ASME’s Adaptive Structures committee.
• Royal Aero. Society’s Bronze award (2009) for quality of written paper in Aeronautical Journal.
• BAE Systems Chairman’s Bronze award (2005). For scientific quality and industrial application
• Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) Lecturer’s award for Excellence in Materials Science and Engineering (2004).
• Institute of Materials Royal Charter Prize (1987) for best undergraduate performance in materials science/engineering in the United Kingdom

Researcher careers : Prof Weaver has supervised 52 PhD students to completion and mentored 28 postdoctoral researchers. They now hold various positions in academia and industry. Academic appointments include full professors and lecturers around the world. Significant appointments in industry include senior experts at Airbus, a senior composites technologist at Blue Origin, CEO at university spin-out iCOMAT, CTO at Actuation Lab, Lead Payloads Engineer at SpaceX and Principal Engineer at Arup. In addition, Prof Weaver created and served as Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Composites from 2008-2024 and oversaw the recruitment and mentorship of more than 150 PhD students, who subsequently found high-level jobs around the world.

Researcher recognition: Prof Weaver’s PhD students have won international best paper conference awards. The following are those awarded in the last ten years: JEC Composites Connect Challenge winner, 2021; Lockheed Martin award at AIAA SciTech conference, 2021; American Society of Composites best paper award SciTech, 2020; Harry Hilton Award, Scitech, 2019; Jefferson Goblet, AIAA SciTech, 2016; American Society of Composites Award, Scitech, 2015.

Recognition of mentorship: Prof Weaver is a Royal Society mentor. As recognition for his contribution to composite structures and for mentorship of early career professionals he received the 2025 James H Starnes Award from the AIAA and ASC. (https://www.aiaa.org/news/news/2024/11/22/aiaa-to-honor-aerospace-award-winners-at-the-2025-aiaa-scitech-forum). The citation reads:

“For his outstanding contribution in the field of composite structures and his supportive and inspirational mentoring of young academics and professionals”

This is the first occasion this quadrennial award has been bestowed upon an individual outside of the USA.

Service in publishing and committees: Advisory Committee for American Society of Mechanical Engineer’s (ASME) SSDM conference (2023-).

• Associate Editor for AIAA Journal (2013-) and Editorial Board member Composite Structures (2016-).
• Structures and Materials National Technical Committee (06/2010-03/2016) of Aerospace KTN, UK.
• Materials and Structures Committee of Royal Aeronautical Society (08/2010-).

Service in reviewing proposals:

• International Panel Member for Belgium’s FWO postgraduate and postdoctoral fellowships, 2025.
• International Review Panel Member for German DFG “Clusters of Excellence”, 2024.
• International Review Panel Member for DTU Wind, Nov 2021.
• Chair EPSRC panel on SUPERGEN Offshore Renewable Energy, 2019.
• EPSRC college member since 2002. Regularly review proposals for overseas agencies, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Luxembourg and Canada.