Paul Meara has recently retired from Swansea University, where he held a personal chair in Applied Linguistics. During his long stay at Swansea (1990-2009), he was responsible for building up a postgraduate research team specialising in L2 vocabulary research. About 60 students have passed through this program, making Swansea a significant focus for L2 research both in the UK and world-wide.

Before moving to Swansea, he worked in Birkbeck College London (1972-1990).

Paul Meara has served as Chair of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, and Vice-President of EuroSLA.

He currently sits as an elected member on Swansea City Council.