Alan Turning

In recent news Mr. Alan Turing, one of the pioneers in the early days of computing made news. This Blog post is dedicated to him. 

Alan Mathison Turing, computer scientist, cryptanalyst, logician, mathematician, and British citizen. Born on June 23, 1912, Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Turing was highly influential in the giving a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine; considered a model for the general-purpose computer. 

Working for the Government Code and Cypher school (GC&CS) at Britain’s code-breaking center, Bletchley Park, Turing led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis during World War II. Turing devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers. These included improvements to the pre-war Polishbombe method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.

After WWII Turing designed ACE while working at the National Physical Laboratory, one of the first designs for a stored-program computer. Because of this design, an argument could be made that Turing is the "father of computers (or more specifically computer-science)". In 1948 Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Laboratory at Manchester University. While working at Manchester, Turing became interested in mathematical biology, eventually writing a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis. He also predicted oscillating-chemical reactions that were first observed in the 1960s, including the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Turing assisted in the development of the Manchester computers as well.

He was prosecuted for Homosexuality in 1952 (such acts were still criminalized in the UK at the time). Turing opted for a chemical castration treatment with female hormones as an alternative to prison. He died from cyanide poisoning in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday. An internal investigation determined his death a suicide, although his mother and some others believed it was an accident.

Following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologized on behalf of the official British government for "the appalling way he was treated." This apology took place on September 10th 2009. On December 24th, 2013 the British government opted for a posthumous pardon under the royal prerogative of mercy with immediate effect, instead of calling for a second reading of the bill through the House of Commons. The bill was first put before the House of Lords in May 2012 to grant Turing a statutory pardon, but didn't gain government support until July 2013.