Alan Turing

1912 – 1954

Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician and logician widely regarded as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. His 1936 paper introducing the abstract "Turing machine" formalized the concept of computation itself, and during the Second World War his cryptanalytic work at Bletchley Park—particularly his refinement of the bombe machine—broke the German Enigma cipher and is credited with shortening the war by years and saving millions of lives. Prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts then criminal under British law and chemically castrated as a sentence, he died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning at age 41; he received a posthumous royal pardon in 2013.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM