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Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS ( /ˈtjʊərɪŋ/ tewr-ing; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954), was a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst andcomputer scientist. He was highly influential in the development ofcomputer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer.[1][2] Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.[3]
During World War II, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking centre. For a time he was head of Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. He devised a number of techniques for breaking Germanciphers, including the method of the bombe, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.
After the war he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he created one of the first designs for a stored-program computer, the ACE. In 1948 Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Laboratory atManchester University, where he assisted in the development of theManchester computers[4] and became interested in mathematical biology. He wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis,[5] and he predicted oscillating chemical reactions such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, which were first observed in the 1960s.
Turing's homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. On 10 September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for his prosecution and subsequent treatment.[6]
Turing died in 1954, just over two weeks before his 42nd birthday, fromcyanide poisoning. An inquest determined it was suicide; his mother and some others believed his death was accidental.
