Claus Pahl's research focuses on modelling and specification languages including their design, semantics and implementation. The Web is the central platform for this work, providing the context for foundational models, infrastructures, and applications. One particular interest of Dr. Pahl is the investigation of service-orientation and composition in the context of the World Wide Web. The Web has the potential to become a software component development and deployment platform.

Dr. Pahl's interests include the formal semantics of specification and programming languages. He is interested in formal models of representing state in logic-based specifications, e.g. using a modal logic such as dynamic logic. Dr. Pahl is seeking a more structured, modular approach to language semantics.

There is much recent interest in models supporting the development of web applications and, in particular, e-learning and e-commerce. Issues here involve suitable models for the dynamics and the infrastructure of a web application. The focus on e-learning is interdisciplinary in nature, addressing both the educational and the computational perspective. Dr. Pahl's interests here include knowledge representation, delivery and evaluation, particularly in an active learning approach that focuses on the acquisition of skills and expertise.