Paul Flecknell is a veterinarian with over 35 years of experience working with laboratory animals. He is a Diplomate of the European Colleges of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia and Laboratory Animal Medicine and an honorary Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. He has PhD in physiology, and is currently Professor of Laboratory Animal Science in the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University. His main research interests are anaesthesia and analgesia of all species of animals and in particular the development of methods of pain assessment. He is the head of the Pain and Animal Welfare Science (PAWS) group at Newcastle. The group's current research work is focussed on novel methods of "cage-side” assessment of pain, particularly using "pain faces” and developing methods of measurement of affective state in rodents.