person Alan M. Turing, 1912-06-22/3? - 1954-06-07. A
Turing also proposed the
Turing test. Turing's work was
fundamental in the theoretical foundations of computer
science.
to 1938. While at Princeton Turing published "On Computable
Turing returned to England in 1938 and during World War II, he
worked in the British Foreign Office. He masterminded
successful in cracking the Nazis "Enigma" codes during World
War II. Some of his early advances in computer design were
inspired by the need to perform many repetitive symbolic
manipulations quickly. Before the building of the
Colossuscomputer this work was done by a roomful of women.
and worked on the design and construction of a large computer,
became deputy director of the Computing Laboratory at
the worlds largest memory computer, was being built.
on the application of mathematical theory to biological forms.
In 1952 he published the first part of his theoretical study
of morphogenesis, the development of pattern and form in
living organisms.
Turing was gay, and died rather young under mysterious
circumstances. He was arrested for violation of British
homosexuality statutes in 1952. He died of potassium cyanide
poisoning while conducting electrolysis experiments. An
inquest concluded that it was self-administered but it is now
thought by some to have been an accident.
There is an excellent biography of Turing by Andrew Hodges,
subtitled "The Enigma of Intelligence" and a play based on it
called "Breaking the Code". There was also a popular summary
of his work in Douglas Hofstadter's book "Godel, Escher,
Bach".
(2001-10-09)