Carl Adam Petri

Carl Adam Petri (12 July 1926 – 2 July 2010) was a German mathematician and computer scientist. He was born in Leipzig.

Life and work

Petri's major scientific contribution, the concept of the Petri net, was invented in August 1939 by Carl Petri – 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 at the Thomasschule he was in 1944 drafted into the Wehrmacht and eventually went into British captivity.

Petri started studying mathematics at the Darmstadt University of Technology in 1950. He documented the Petri net in 1962 as part of his dissertation, Kommunikation mit Automaten (communication with automata). He worked from 1959 until 1962 at the University of Bonn and received his PhD degree in 1962 from the Darmstadt University of Technology.

Petri's work significantly advanced the fields of parallel computing and distributed computing, and it helped define the modern studies of complex systems and workflow management systems. 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.

Adam Petri

Adam Petri (1454 in Langendorf (now part of Elfershausen) in Franconia – November 15, 1527 in Basel) was a printer, publisher and bookseller.

Life

Adam Petri was born ca. 1454 in Langendorf near Hammelburg. Like his uncle Johannes Petri, he moved to Basel where he resided from around 1480 and worked as a printer. In 1507 he received Basel citizenship rights. The following year he married Anna Selber, a member of a Basel burgher family. His firm began to grow in prominence after he took over the printshop of his uncle Johannes in 1509. Petri was one of the first printers in Basel who worked with illustrators. His books were illustrated by the likes of Urs Graf, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Conrad Schnitt among others. He also employed a number of prominent collaborators as writers, editors and proofreaders including Konrad Pellikan, the young Sebastian Münster, Beatus Rhenanus, Ulrich Hugwald and his relative Johannes Petreius.

Adam Petri chiefly printed devotional literature and works of practical theology. After 1517 his printshop was primarily occupied with the publication of texts of the Protestant Reformation. Of the more than 300 publications from the Offizin Adae Petri, there are more than 88 editions of Martin Luther. He also published works of other German reformers like Johannes Bugenhagen, Hartmuth by Cronberg, Philipp Melanchthon, Andreas Karlstadt and a few titles by the Swiss Reformers Huldrych Zwingli, Joachim Vadian and Johannes Oecolampadius.

Adam (given name)

Adam is a common masculine given name.

The personal name Adam derives from the Hebrew noun ha adamah meaning "the ground" or "earth". It is still a Hebrew given name, and its Quranic and Biblical usage has ensured that it is also a common name in all countries which draw on these traditions. It is particularly common in Christian- and Muslim-majority countries. In most languages its spelling is the same, although the pronunciation varies somewhat. Adán is the Spanish form of this name.

Adam is also a surname in many countries, although it is not as common in English as its derivative Adams (sometimes spelled Addams). In other languages there are similar surnames derived from Adam, such as Adamo, Adamov, Adamowicz, Adamski etc.

In Arabic, Adam (آدم) means "made from the earth/mud/clay".

Translations

Roger Adam

Roger Adam was a French aircraft designer and manufacturer who produced light aircraft in kit from 1948 to 1955. He established the firm Etablissements Aeronautiques R. Adam.

Aircraft Designs Produced

Adam (Ravenloft)

Adam is a fictional character; from the Ravenloft campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Publication history

Adam was a major character in the 1994 novel, Mordenheim, written by Chet Williamson.

Fictional character biography

Adam is the darklord of Lamordia. Known as Mordenheim's Monster or the Creature, he is an extremely intelligent and nimble dread flesh golem, based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Adam is the most successful creation of Dr. Victor Mordenheim in his research into the creation of life, albeit the one that causes him grief unmeasured. Adam reduced the doctor's wife Elise to a vegetative state and apparently murdered their adopted daughter Eva.

The two are inextricably bound together: Dr. Mordenheim has Adam's immortality, and in return Adam shares the doctor's anguish.

Usually hidden from sight, Adam is believed to spend most of his time on the Isle of Agony, part of the archipelago known as the Finger.

References

Sources