Paulsen studied mathematics at Western Michigan University, obtaining a BA in 1973.
He then moved to University of Michigan and obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics under Carl Pearcy in 1977.
Since 1979, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at University of Houston.
He was since 1996 the John and Rebecca Moores Professor at the University of Houston.
[1][2] In 2015, Paulsen moved to Canada and became a professor in the department of pure mathematics at the Institute for Quantum Computing and at the University of Waterloo.