Paul Messier is the founder and Pritzker Director of the Lens Media Lab (LML) at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Established in 2015, the LML is focused on the creation, dissemination, and interpretation of large datasets derived from museum and reference collections of artist materials. Notable among these is the LML’s collection of historic photographic papers, which is the largest of its kind in the world and was assembled by Messier over the course of decades. The founder of three private companies dedicated to cultural heritage preservation, Messier has published widely, holds two patents covering innovative techniques for the characterization of cultural materials, served elected terms to the board of directors of the American Institute for Conservation, and recently completed a multiyear initiative to establish a department of photograph conservation at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. He received the 2017 New England Beacon Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography and was the 2018 recipient of the Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation, jointly presented by the College Art Association and the American Institute for Conservation.