Name: Carl Adam Petri

Born: July 12, 1926, in Leipzig, Weimar Republic, Germany

Death: July 2, 2010 (Age: 84)

  • In August 1939, at the age of 13, he invented “Petri nets,” directed graphs for the purpose of describing chemical processes.
  • Significantly advanced the fields of parallel and distributed computing, and helped define the modern studies of complex systems and workflow management.

Honors and awards

  • Cross of Merit, first class (1988).
  • Konrad Zuse Medal (1993).
  • Werner von Siemens Ring (1996).
  • IEEE Computer Pioneer Award (2008).