As recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, Prof. van der Aalst heads up the
Process and Data Science Group (PADS) within the specialist work group Informatics at RWTH Aachen. The topic scope of the group includes all activities, in which discrete processes are analyzed, revised and/or supported with data-driven methods. Process centering is combined with a large number of data science techniques. That in turn is combined with neighboring disciplines like business research, algorithms, discrete behavioral simulation, business process management and workflow automation.