A celebration by the GI · Hamburg
1926 2026

100 Years
Carl Adam Petri

A celebration of the founder of Petri nets on the shore of the Alster — with talks by those who carried his ideas forward.

DateThur., 25 June 2026 Time17:00 – 19:00 WhereRuderclub Favorite Hammonia · Alsterufer 9 · 20354 Hamburg
01 — Occasion

A pioneer of
concurrent systems.

Portrait photograph of Carl Adam Petri

Carl Adam Petri was born in Leipzig in 1926. With his doctoral thesis “Kommunikation mit Automaten” (1962) he laid the foundations of an entire discipline: the Petri nets named after him have shaped the modelling, verification and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems worldwide — from theoretical computer science and business processes to systems biology.

To mark his 100th birthday, the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) invites companions, students and all who are interested to a celebration on the shore of the Alster — with talks by some of those who carried his ideas forward.

Petri held an honorary professorship at the University of Hamburg; the celebration takes place during Petri Nets 2026, the field's international conference, hosted in Hamburg.

02 — Program

Talks addressing:

Petri nets inspire with their clarity for modelling small systems. Designed by Carl Adam Petri for large, distributed systems, they today operate huge commercial applications.
17:00
Welcome & opening
Gesellschaft für Informatik · Laure Petrucci and Robin Bergenthum
I
From the Token Game to Net Complexity
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Valk
Universität Hamburg
II
Concurrency as a Concept Within and Outside of Petri Nets
Prof. Dr. Jörg Desel
FernUniversität in Hagen
III
Carl Adam Petri’s central idea… Working title
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Reisig
HU Berlin
IV
From Petri Nets to Process Intelligence Celebrating Carl Adam Petri’s legacy through the real-world impact of process mining
Prof. Dr. Wil van der Aalst
RWTH Aachen
19:00
Close
—

Order of talks; the program runs from 17:00 to 19:00. More details will be announced later.

03 — Venue

On the Alster.

Sailing boats and the Hamburg skyline on the Außenalster

The Außenalster, Hamburg — the setting for the celebration.

Date
Thursday, 25 June 2026
17:00 – 19:00
Where
Ruderclub Favorite Hammonia · Alsterufer 9 · 20354 Hamburg
Organiser
Gesellschaft für
Informatik (GI)
Conference week
Petri Nets 2026
04 — Organisation

Organisation
& details.

Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)
Organiser
The celebration is organised by the GI — Germany’s society for computer science — together with the Petri net community.
Registration necessary but free
Free · via PN’26
All participants of the conference are already registered. Everyone else can register for the celebration free of charge through the PN’26 registration, e.g. on presentation of their own GI membership number.
Registration for the Dinner at the same location (starting 20:00) is also possible via the normal registration page.
Location
Ruderclub Favorite Hammonia · Alsterufer 9 · 20354 Hamburg
Conference week
PN’26 · Hamburg
The celebration takes place during Petri Nets 2026, the field’s international conference, hosted in Hamburg.