Alan Turing
Facts About Him!
Alan Turing was born on 23rd June, 1912 and died on 7th June 1954. He was a very smart computer scientist. In 1936, he came up with the idea of a machine that was able to compute anything that could be computed. He has been named one of the top 100 most important people in the 20th century. Turing was also involved in cracking the German Enigma codes.
Photo of Turing
Did You Know?!
Alan Turing once cycled almost 100km from his home to school as the general strike was on!
His Arrest
He was arrested in 1952 for being a homosexual which was a criminal act in the uk. He accepted DES (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. He died from cyanide poisoning, 16 days before his 42nd birthday. An inquest determines that it was suicide, but it was noted that it could have been accidental poisoning. In 2009, following an internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the british government for ''the appalling way he was treated'' and The Queen granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013
His Work in The Second World War
His was involved in cracking the enigma code and could find the settings in the enigma machine. He also found out and cracked the intercepted coded messages that enabled ally countries to have an advantage in World War 2. It has also been estimated that he shortened the war in Europe by 2-4 years, though people are still debating how long it actually was.
Father of Computer Science
Some say that he is the father of computer science and influenced the path of the computer. He created the Turing Machine in 1936, and he named it an a-machine (automatic machine)
What He Did After The War
After the war, Turing worked with the National Physical Laboratory and during his time there, he designed the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) and was among the first designs for a stored-program computer. Then in 1948, he joined Max Newman's Computing Laboratory at The University of Manchester where he helped develop the Manchester computers.
Conclusion
To me, Alan Turing was an extremely smart man. Without him, the computer would have taken much more time, and made it astonishingly better. He also participated in cracking the Enigma codes, which was extremely important. The computer would not be the same without him. He changed the world of technology forever.