Carl Adam Petri (12 July 1926 in Leipzig – 2 July 2010 in Siegburg) was a German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and computer scientist.

Life and work

Petri created his major scientific contribution, the concept of the

Petri net A Petri net, also known as a place/transition (PT) net, is one of several mathematical modeling languages for the description of distributed systems. It is a class of discrete event dynamic system. A Petri net is a directed bipartite graph that ...

, in 1939 at the age of 13, for the purpose of describing chemical processes. In 1941, his father told him about

Konrad Zuse Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program ...

's work on computing machines and Carl Adam started building his own

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In ...

. After earning his Abitur at Thomasschule in 1944, he was drafted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. He was taken into British captivity until 1949, when he departed England. Petri started studying mathematics at the Technische Hochschule Hannover (today, the Leibniz University Hannover) in 1950. He documented Petri nets in 1962 as part of his dissertation, (Communication with automata). From 1959 until 1962 he worked at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

and received his PhD degree in 1962 from the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

. From 1963 to 1968 he established and directed the computing centre of Bonn University. In 1968, he became head of of the newly founded

Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...

(GMD). He retired in 1991. In 1988, Petri became honorary professor of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

. He was a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

. Petri's work significantly advanced the fields of parallel computing and

distributed computing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

, and it helped define the modern studies of complex systems and

workflow management system A workflow management system (WfMS or WFMS) provides an infrastructure for the set-up, performance and monitoring of a defined sequence of tasks, arranged as a workflow application. International standards There are several international standards ...

s. His contributions have been in the broader area of network theory, which includes coordination models and theories of interaction, and eventually led to the formal study of software connectors.

Books, papers, and presentations

* 1962 ** Kommunikation mit Automaten ( Dissertation) by Carl Adam Petri * 1976 ** Nicht-sequentielle Prozesse (Work report) by Carl Adam Petri ** Kommunikationsdisziplinen (Internal report) by Carl Adam Petri * 1977 ** General net theory (from "Computing System Design: Proceedings of the Joint IBM University of Newcastle upon Tyne Seminar") by Carl Adam Petri ** Communication disciplines (from "Computing System Design: Proceedings of the Joint IBM University of Newcastle upon Tyne Seminar") by Carl Adam Petri * 1979 ** Concurrency as a basis of systems thinking (from "Proceedings of the 5th Scandinavian Logic Symposium") by Carl Adam Petri ** Ansätze zur Organisationstheorie rechnergestützter Informationssysteme (Book) by Carl Adam Petri * 1980 ** Concurrency (from "Net Theory and Applications, Proceedings of the Advanced Course on General Net Theory of Processes and Systems, Hamburg, October 8–19, 1979") by Carl Adam Petri ** Introduction to General Net Theory (from "Net Theory and Applications, Proc. of the Advanced Course on General Net Theory of Processes and Systems, Hamburg, 1979") by Carl Adam Petri * 1982 ** State-Transition Structures in Physics and Computation (article in "International Journal of Theoretical Physics") by Carl Adam Petri * 1987 ** Concurrency Theory (from "Petri Nets: Central Models and Their Properties, Advances in Petri Nets 1986, Part I, Proceedings of an Advanced Course, Bad Honnef, September 1986") by Carl Adam Petri * 1996 ** Nets, Time and Space (from "Theoretical Computer Science") by Carl Adam Petri * 1997 ** Ansprache anläßlich der Verleihung des Werner-von-Siemens-Rings by Carl Adam Petri * 2008 ** Petri Nets by Carl Adam Petri and Wolfgang Reisig

Awards

Petri was honored with the following awards: * 1993: Konrad Zuse Medal of the

Gesellschaft für Informatik The German Informatics Society (GI) (german: Gesellschaft für Informatik) is a German professional society for computer science, with around 20,000 personal and 250 corporate members. It is the biggest organized representation of its kind in the ...

. * 1997:

Werner von Siemens Ring The Werner von Siemens Ring (in German orthography, Werner-von-Siemens-Ring) is one of the highest awards for technical sciences in Germany. It has been awarded from 1916 to 1941 and since 1952 about every three years by the foundation ''Stiftung ...

, a prestigious German award in technical sciences. * 1999: Doctorate '' Honoris Causa'' from the

Universidad de Zaragoza The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon, Spain. Founded in 1542, it is one of the oldest universiti ...

* 2003: honored by Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands with the title ''Commander in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

''. * 2007: honored for his lifetime achievements by the "Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies (ATLAS)" with a "Academy Gold Medal of Honor". * 2008:

Computer Pioneer Award The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry. ...

from the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

for his inspiration of

s.
Carl Adam Petri, 2008 IEEE Computer Pioneer Award Recipient, retrieved 2016-02-24.

References

External links

Prof. Dr. Carl Adam Petri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petri, Carl Adam 1926 births 2010 deaths Scientists from Leipzig Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni German computer scientists 20th-century German mathematicians Werner von Siemens Ring laureates Formal methods people University of Bonn faculty University of Hamburg faculty Petri nets Members of Academia Europaea Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion University of Hanover alumni

Life and work

Books, papers, and presentations

Awards

See also

References

External links