Dr. Paul Ziehl is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina, where he serves to understand and align capabilities of the faculty and the research enterprise of the College. He is a professor of structural engineering in the Departments of Mechanical and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Dr. Ziehl has experience in the management of and interest in joint venture projects involving multiple universities and industrial collaborators. He has served as the Principal Investigator at the University of South Carolina for a four-year NIST-sponsored joint venture project for edge analytics and development of a commercially deployed wireless structural prognosis system. Dr. Ziehl conducts research in aerospace composites and related structural systems. In this capacity, he has conducted multiple investigations for the Department of Defense in collaboration with Texas Research International for a real-time in flight evaluation system, contributed to the development of a flight ready monitoring system for thermoplastic aircraft control surfaces, and developed evaluation procedures for progressive damage caused by Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) defects through the NASA sponsored Advanced Composites Consortium. Dr. Ziehl contributes to the development of high-pressure composite overwrapped hydrogen vessels through his work on the ASME BPV Code, where he serves as a voting member. His research lies at the intersection of data driven experimental approaches informed with machine learning and physics-based numerical simulations.