Alan Turning OBE

Alan Mathison Turing OBE was born on the 23rd of June 1912 to parents Julius and Sara Turing in Maida Vale, London. He was enrolled in school at the age of six and was soon spotted by the headmistress for his blossoming talent. Alan Turing came under scrutiny while studying at Sherborne secondary school as his love for the sciences and mathematics was not popular among staff that traditionally focussed upon the classics. Culminating with the headmaster writing to Turing’s parents "I hope he will not fall between two stools. If he is to stay at Public School, he must aim at becoming educated. If he is to be solely a Scientific Specialist, he is wasting his time at a Public School". In 1927 at the age of 15 Alan was clearly excelling in his beloved subjects solving complex mathematical problems prior to having studied basic calculus. A year later Turing discovered Albert Einstein’s work and at 16 extrapolated Einstein’s questioning of Newton’s laws of Motion.

The Cambridge Years

In 1931 Turing joined Cambridge University’s Kings College as an undergraduate, where he achieved a first class honours in mathematics. His dissertation which focussed on the central limit theory earned him a place as a fellow at the college in 1935. While at Cambridge he wrote many papers and postulated many new theories, one of his most famous and ground breaking is his paper titled "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" this is a German decision problem that questions the truth behind solutions to problems gained arithmetically. Turing developed the Turing Machine a relatively simple device that was able to solve any conceivable mathematical computation as long as the problem could be represented as an algorithm. Turing used this machine to prove that the Entscheidungsproblem is unsolvable. At the time the idea of a universal machine (the term universal developed more into what we now call programmable) that could have multiple uses, in some cases mimicking other machines.

Becoming a Renown Code Breaker at Bletchley Park

Before the second world war Turing worked part time for the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) but as soon as war was declared he reported to Bletchley Park to start work. Turing has become one of the most famous code breakers of all time based upon his work whilst at Bletchley Park.

Turing’s Immediate Effect – Creating the Bombe

Within weeks of his arrival at Bletchley Park Turing redeveloped and improved the polish cryptographic machine bomba into his Turing – Welchman Bombe. This new machine was more effective at searching for the possible setting configurations of the German encoding machines becoming one of the primary tools used attack the German encryptions. By the end of the war more than two hundred of these machines were in operation across the world.

Working on the Enigma Machine

Alan Turing is most famous for his work cracking the Germans enigma machine. As head of Hut 8 which was responsible for intercepting and cracking German naval communications whose enigma machines were proving incredibly hard to decode. Turing turned his attentions to the particularly difficult enigma machines once stating "because no one else was doing anything about it and I could have it to myself". To solve the enigma problem Turing developed a new type of statistical analysis called Banburismus that was a key part of cracking the enigma machines.

Turing’s Contributions to the World of Computing

After the war Turing became interested in the development of computing, working on the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) at the National Physical Laboratory and in 1946 presented a paper with the first detailed design of a stored-program computer. He then moved to Manchester University where he worked on software for the earliest stored-program computers called the Manchester Mark 1. Turing later found himself thinking about artificial intelligence and developed the Turing Test states that artificial intelligence is achieved when a human can have a conversation with a computer without realising that it is a computer replying. A form of the Turing Test is currently used on the internet called CAPTCHA which determines whether or not a user is a human or a computer.

An Untimely Death

In the last few years of his life Alan worked on Mathematical Biology and Pattern Formation, specifically Morphogenesis and Fibonacci Phyllotaxis successfully publishing papers on the subject. In 1952 Turing was convicted of indecency for committing a homosexual act. He chose to be chemically castrated but after he got a criminal record his security clearance was scrapped and he was unable to be a cryptographic consultant for GCHQ. Two years later in 1954 Turing was discovered dead by his cleaner apparently by cyanide poisoning and it is considered to be a suicide although his mother claimed otherwise.

The Lasting Legacy of Alan Turing OBE

Alan Turing is considered to be the founding father of computer science, his early work developing the Turing machine through to his work on artificial intelligence has gained him international respect. Many universities and institutions have named buildings and various computer labs in memory of Turing.