Pavel obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in physics from the Czech Technical University (Prague), the latter carried out at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL, Oxford). Since 1991 he has worked at RAL where he proposed the use of Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) for the generation of extreme, multi-PW laser peak powers, pioneered ps-Kerr gating for fluorescence rejection in Raman spectroscopy, proposed and developed Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) and introduced transmission Raman spectroscopy (TRS) into pharmaceutical analysis. Pavel’s current research areas include noninvasive breast cancer and bone disease diagnosis, aviation security, cultural heritage and pharmaceutical analysis (SORS/TRS).

Pavel has published over 220 peer-reviewed articles (8800 citations, h-index: 56/WoS) and holds 11 patent families (8 granted, 3 pending). His honours include the premier Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2014 MacRobert Award (UK), the 2009 Charles Mann Award (FACSS, USA), the 2008 Measurement in Action Award (IET, UK) and the 2002 & 2006 Meggers Awards from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS, USA).

He chaired a number of international committees/panels and acted as the Conference Program Chair of SciX 2011 (Reno, NV).

In 2008, Pavel co-founded a spinout company Cobalt Light Systems and acted as its board director and Chief Scientific Officer. The company developed commercial SORS/TRS scanners deployed at over 75 airports and 30 pharmaceutical companies worldwide. In 2017, Cobalt was acquired by Agilent Technologies for £40M. The company has now formed its global centre for Raman spectroscopy in Oxford area.

Pavel is an Associate Editor of Applied Spectroscopy and serves on the advisory boards of Analyst and Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. He is a Fellow of RAEng, RSC and SAS and a Senior Fellow of STFC (main role).