Paul Szpak is a Professor of Anthropology at Trent University and was a Canada Research Chair in Archaeological Science from 2016-2025. As an undergraduate Paul worked at the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory at McMaster University and performed isotopic research on Pleistocene mammoths and marine fauna from British Columbia. He completed his doctoral studies in the Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science at Western University in 2013. His dissertation involved isotopic applications in the Andean region, specifically related to plant ecology, controlled studies examining fertilizers, and animal management practices. Paul held SSHRC, Killam, and NSERC Banting postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia from 2013-2016 using isotopic analysis to investigate the palaeoecology of Arctic marine ecosystems. Both Arctic and Andean research remain important aspects of his ongoing research program. Paul has worked at Trent University since 2016 and became Director of the Trent Water Quality Centre, Trent's centralized mass spectrometry facility, in 2021. He has been the director of the Anthropology Graduate Program at Trent since 2023.

Paul directs a diverse research program centered on stable isotope analysis, supported by several major grants from the Tri-Council (SSHRC and NSERC). These projects correspond to his broader research focus on applying chemical analyses to archaeological materials to better understand the interactions between humans, animals, plants, and their environments. He also continues to conduct research aimed at optimizing the laboratory methods that we use to analyze the stable isotope composition of ancient materials, quantifying the rates at which bones grow and replace themselves, and understanding how the stable isotope compositions of animal tissues change during decomposition. He is involved in isotopic research from archaeological sites all over the world spanning terrestrial and aquatic environments, both modern and ancient.