Dr. Carl Adam P. Petri with his PhD thesis established a completely new research area, widely known under the name Petri nets. Petri nets and its concepts have been extended and developed since then and both the theory and the applications. Petri nets have been used to model,visualize and analyze process and design abstractions in a wide range of technical and organizational disciplines. Applications can be found in automation technology, business administration, chemistry, computer science, design and management of manufacturing systems, process engineering and many more. The Petri Net is a formal method of modeling and describing such complex systems.

In 1997, the Society for Design and Process Science established the Carl A. Petri Distinguished Technical Achievement Award to be given away annually during the SDPS IDPT Conference.