Paul Birch (25 May 1956 – 4 July 2012)[1] was a British author, engineer and scientist, who worked in radioastronomy and satellite communications, and latterly wrote full-time.
He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby and Trinity College, Cambridge and worked for Marconi Defence Systems and Plessey Radar.
[5][6] He stood for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in an election taking 11.3% of the vote.
[7] He was a Town Councillor in Cowes, Isle of Wight at the time of his death.
In 1982, Birch published a series of papers in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society which described orbital rings and described a form which he called Partial Orbital Ring System (PORS).