Paul E. Hertz was born and raised in New York City. He received a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University in 1972, an A.M. in Biology from Harvard University in 1973, and a Ph.D.

in Biology from Harvard University in 1977. While completing field research for the doctorate, he served on the Biology faculty of the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. After two years as an Isaac Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, Paul accepted a teaching position at Barnard College, where he has taught since 1979. He was named Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Biology in 2000, received The Barnard Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2007, and was named Claire Tow Professor of Biology in 2016. In addition to serving on numerous college committees, Paul chaired Barnard's Biology Department for eight years and served as Acting Provost and Dean of the Faculty from 2011 to 2012. He was the founding Program Director of the Hughes Science Pipeline Project at Barnard, an undergraduate curriculum and research program that was funded continuously by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1992 until 2016. The Pipeline Project included the Intercollegiate Partnership, a program for local community college students that facilitated their transfer to four-year colleges and universities. He teaches one semester of the introductory sequence for Biology majors and pre-professional students, lecture and laboratory courses in vertebrate zoology and ecology, and seminars that introduce first-year students to scientific research.

Paul is an animal physiological ecologist with a specific research interest in the thermal biology of lizards. He has conducted fieldwork in the West Indies since the mid-1970s, focusing on the lizards of Cuba and Puerto Rico. His work has been funded by the NSF, and he has published his research in THE AMERICAN NATURALIST, ECOLOGY, NATURE, OECOLOGIA, and PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.