On September 13, 2023, TU Wien is awarding an honorary professorship to Frank Leymann to honor his extensive contributions to computer science. The internationally renowned researcher and first Kurt Gödel Visiting Professor at TU Wien has a close connection to TU Wien Informatics. Rector Sabine Seidler honors Frank Leymann together with Gerti Kappel, Dean of the TU Wien Informatics, Kurt Matyas, Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching, and laudator Schahram Dustdar, Professor and Head of the Research Unit for Distributed Systems.

“With Frank Leymann, we welcome a pioneer to our faculty, who overcomes the boundaries between classical computing and quantum computing with his expertise in computer science and mathematics,” says Gerti Kappel, Dean of TU Wien Informatics. Vienna’s role in quantum computing, especially in researching hybrid applications, will be further strengthened with Frank Leymann as an honorary professor. The Professor of Computer Science at the University of Stuttgart deals with integrating quantum computing methods – for scientific and commercial purposes. “Quantum computers are faster, more precise, and more powerful,” Leymann explains, “They enable us to solve problems that were generally considered unsolvable in computer science. But to apply quantum computers broadly, we need to be able to combine them with existing systems.”

Frank Leymann heads the Institute for Architecture of Application Systems at the University of Stuttgart. He begins his academic career studying mathematics, physics, and astronomy, and in 1982, received a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Bochum, Germany. There, he obtained his doctorate in differential geometry in 1984 on “Foliations on spaces with singularities”.

With over 550 published articles, more than 42,000 citations, and an H-index of 89, he is today considered one of the most influential computer scientists worldwide. His expertise is diverse – from workflow management to pattern languages to cloud computing, IoT, integration technologies and quantum computing – and lies not only in research, but also in industrial applications.

Leymann holds over 70 international software patents and is heavily involved in developing international standards (including BPEL, BPMN, WS-RF, TOSCA). He is also referred to as the “father” of the workflow: After his doctorate, he begins a steep career at the IBM Software Group and contributes significantly to developing software products such as DB2, Websphere, or MQSeries. His book “Production Workflow: Concepts and Techniques”, becomes an essential guideline on structuring and designing workflow systems. His concepts of transactional design and system architectures are implemented in workflow products by companies such as IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft and in open-source implementations. After 20 years at IBM, Leymann returns to academia as a full professor of computer science at the University of Stuttgart. He is working intensively on making quantum computing more widely usable – for example, with workflow-driven applications for companies that combine quantum and classical computing.

Frank Leymann has always maintained a close relationship with TU Wien and TU Wien Informatics, whether in scientific exchange, project collaboration, or teaching. As part of the Kurt Gödel Visiting Professorship, he inspires the next generation of computer scientists in his lecture series on quantum computing.

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