My core research focuses on the area of distributed systems and, more specifically, on the middleware architectures that underpin complex distributed systems applications and services. This includes examination of key distributed properties such as interoperability and how this can be achieved in the complex and dynamic distributed systems of today.

I have a strong interest in more applied areas of computing including how innovations in distributed systems, for example cloud computing and ubiquitous computing, can support environmental scientists in tackling global problems such as climate change. I also have interests in more general applicability of digital innovation in the digital economy.

I am interesting in supervising PhD students on a range of topics related to:

Distributed systems generally including cloud computing and middleware;

Environmental informatics including the role of cloud computing in supporting environmental scientists;

The digital economy, especially areas related to digital innovations and their impact on business or society (see the HighWire CDT - highwire.lancs.ac.uk);

The role of models at run-time in supporting the engineering of distributed systems.

Director of the HighWire Centre for Doctoral Training

Gordon Blair is a Professor of Distributed Systems in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University and is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tromsø in Norway. He has published over 280 papers in his field and is on the PCs of many major international conferences in middleware and distributed systems. He is also chair of the steering committee of the ACM/ IFIP/ Usenix Middleware series of conferences. His current research interests include distributed systems architecture, middleware (including reflective and adaptive middleware),  model-driven engineering techniques applied to adaptive distributed systems, and the applicability of contemporary distributed systems technologies (including cloud computing) to environmental science. He is co-author of the highly successful book Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design by Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair with the 5th edition published in 2011. He is also Director of the HighWire Centre for Doctoral Training, a PhD programe taking a cross-disciplinary perspective on innovation as it relates to the digital economy, and is co-editor in chief of Springer's Journal of Internet Services and Applications.

CSc 253: Distributed Systems (Undergraduate) 
CSM 02: Advanced Distributed Systems (Masters)