Paul Wolf trained in botany as a student at the University of Leicester, University of Kansas, and Washington state University
His early work included chromosomal work on ferns. As a faculty member at Utah State University, his research group branched into genomics and bioinformatics, with an emphasis on ferns. In 2019, Wolf moved to the University of Alabama in Huntsville as Chair of Biological Sciences. His research group are now moving back to the topic of fern chromosomes, but now with the help of genomic data.