Pawel joined the Department in 2001 as a PhD student working on spatial pH control in the heart in Richard Vaughan-Jones’ lab.  Between 2004 and 2008, his research work, split between DPAG and Ken Spitzer’s lab at the University of Utah, focused on how changes in pH influence calcium signalling, a key driver of cardiac physiology. In 2008, Pawel was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) to study spatio-temporal aspects of pH control in cancer, and how acidic pH affects cancer cell behaviour and disease progression. He received mentorship from Adrian Harris.  In 2017, he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Award to expand his research in the area of acid-selection in colorectal cancer.  In that year, Pawel also began leading a BHF Programme on the role of acidity in hypertrophic cardiac growth, which often precedes heart failure.

In the 2020 Recognition of Distinction Exercise, he was conferred the title of Professor of Physiology. In 2024, he was elected to be a member of the Academia Europeae: the Academy of Europe.