Mathematician and Logician
Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954) was a British mathematician and logician.
FAST FACTS:
- Education: studied both at Princeton and Cambridge
- His most famous work and accomplishments took place at his role as a military code decipher in Buckinghamshire
- Inspiration behind the 2014 film, “The Imitation Game,” based upon the story behind how he deciphered the German’s secret code called Enigma.
- With fellow code-breaker Gordon Welchma, they created a machine known as the Bombe which decreased the time needed to break the code and send the messages to the allied forces
- In an initiative called “Hut 8”, Turing led a team of fellow codebreakers who helped decipher naval Enigma messages. They used a method called ‘Banburismus’ to speed up the process of unraveling the encrypted messages. In the end, it was a huge support to allow weapons, resources, and soldiers to cross the Atlantic for the Allied forces’ efforts.
- Prior to World War II, he also worked with hypothetical computing devices known as Turing machines. While its idea was not taken forward after World War II, it was considered by many as a prototype of today’s computers.
- Unfortunately at the time, homosexuality was considered illegal in Great Britain. He was convicted of gross indecency – this led to his professional career’s demise. He no longer could continue to work for the government.
- While there is some controversy regarding his death, the official cause of his demise was suicide through cyanide poisoning.
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