Dr. Lauritz Thamsen | University of Glasgow | Systems

I am a Lecturer in Computer Systems in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. I am generally passionate about making computing more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. To this end, I work on methods and tools that make it easier to create resource-efficient and reliable distributed computer systems, for example through adaptive resource management and carbon-aware computing. A particular focus is on data-intensive applications (e.g. data analytics, scientific workflows, AI/ML) running on cloud or edge infrastructure. At Glasgow, I lead the Carbon-Conscious Computing Lab, I am a member of the Systems Section, and I contribute to the Low-Carbon and Sustainable Computing theme.

Lauritz Thamsen

Before joining Glasgow, I was a senior researcher in the Distributed and Operating Systems group at TU Berlin, where I worked on adaptive resource management with PhD students and lectured on Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems. At the same time, I also collaborated closely with the Operating Systems and Middleware group at Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), mainly on Distributed Systems Engineering. In addition, I was a guest professor in the Knowledge Management group and the Department of Computer Science at HU Berlin, where I lectured on Data-Intensive Systems, contributed to the research activities of the DFG Collaborative Research Center FONDA, and substituted for Ulf Leser.

I got my PhD from TU Berlin, working on dynamic resource allocation for distributed dataflows in the BMBF-funded Berlin Big Data Center and the DFG Research Unit Stratosphere under Odej Kao. Before that, I was part of the Software Architecture Group of Robert Hirschfeld and the Research School at HPI. Furthermore, I have worked at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, California, in the Technology Infrastructure Practice group, under Dan Ingalls, and at Signavio in Berlin.

At Glasgow, I hold an EPSRC New Investigator Award supporting my research program on carbon-aware scalable processing in elastic clusters (2025–2027), in partnership with AWS, BBC R&D, and HU Berlin. In addition, I received the Early-Career Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Glasgow's College of Science and Engineering in 2025 in recognition of my commitment to both day-to-day teaching and strategic initiatives, such as embedding sustainability into our curriculum. Previously, I built my first research team through a series of successful externally funded projects at TU Berlin, allowing me to recruit, mentor, and collaborate with several PhD students. This team subsequently evolved into a close research collaboration on Adaptive Resource Management between TU Berlin and Glasgow. The joint work resulted in numerous co-authored publications at leading international conferences over the years, including the ICWS 2022 Best Paper and the PerCom 2021 Best Work-in-Progress Paper, as well as a widely cited Middleware 2021 paper on carbon-aware computing that attracted media and industry attention.

contact

lauritz.thamsen at glasgow.ac.uk
+44 141 330 2000 (x0652)

office

Room S152
Sir Alwyn Williams Bldg

web

Bluesky: lauritzthamsen.org
LinkedIn: lauritzthamsen

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collaborations

  • Academic and industry collaborations: If you are interested in making distributed computer systems more efficient and sustainable with me, let me know.
  • Student and project supervision: I am always looking to work with motivated research students. Please have a look here and get in touch.
  • Community service: I am available for scientific community service in areas such as edge and cloud computing, data-intensive systems, and sustainable computing.