Carl Adam Petri on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Carl Adam Petri (12 July 1926 in Leipzig – 2 July 2010 in Siegburg) was a German mathematician and
Petri created his major scientific contribution, the concept of the Petri net, in 1939 at the age of 13, for the purpose of describing chemical processes. In 1941, his father told him about Konrad Zuse's work on computing machines and Carl Adam started building his own analog computer.
After earning his
Carl Adam Petri, 2008 IEEE Computer Pioneer Award Recipient, retrieved 2016-02-24.
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
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
.
Life and work
Petri created his major scientific contribution, the concept of the Petri net, in 1939 at the age of 13, for the purpose of describing chemical processes. In 1941, his father told him about Konrad Zuse's work on computing machines and Carl Adam started building his own analog computer.
After earning his Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
at Thomasschule
St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest scho ...
in 1944, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. 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
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...
) 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 and received his PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
degree in 1962 from the Technische Universität Darmstadt. From 1963 to 1968 he established and directed the computing centre of Bonn University
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 ...
. In 1968, he became head of of the newly founded Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD). He retired in 1991.
In 1988, Petri became honorary professor of the University of Hamburg. He was a member of the Academia Europaea.
Petri's work significantly advanced the fields of parallel computing
Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different fo ...
and distributed computing, and it helped define the modern studies of complex system
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication ...
s and workflow management systems. His contributions have been in the broader area of network theory
Network theory is the study of graphs as a representation of either symmetric relations or asymmetric relations between discrete objects. In computer science and network science, network theory is a part of graph theory: a network can be defi ...
, 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 ReisigAwards
Petri was honored with the following awards: * 1993: Konrad Zuse Medal of the Gesellschaft für Informatik. * 1997: Werner von Siemens Ring, a prestigious German award in technical sciences. * 1999: Doctorate ''Honoris Causa
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
'' from the Universidad de Zaragoza
* 2003: honored by Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands with the title ''Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion''.
* 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 from the IEEE for his inspiration of Petri nets.Carl Adam Petri, 2008 IEEE Computer Pioneer Award Recipient, retrieved 2016-02-24.
See also
* Petri net * Discrete event dynamic system, Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (DEDS)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