ALAN TURING

Date of Birth: June 23rd, 1912

Place of Birth: Maida Vale, London, England

Fields: Mathematics, Cryptanalysis, Computer Science

Date of Death: June 7th, 1954

Cause Of Death: Suicide via Cyanide Poisoning

BIOGRAPHY

During WWII, Bletchley Park was used as the main decryption site.

Decryptions of German cipher were mostly made here.

Alan Turing was a leading participant in breaking these ciphers.

During his time at Bletchley Park, Turing made five cryptanalysis advances.

CRYPTANALYSIS & WWII

• specifying the bombe• deducing the indicator procedure used by the German

Navy• developing a procedure for making more efficient use of

the bombes named Banburismus• developing a procedure for working out the cam settings

of the wheels of the LORENZ SZ 40/42 [named Turingery]

• developing a portable secure voice scrambler.

FIVE CRYPTANALYSIS ADVANCES

"YOU NEEDED EXCEPTIONAL TALENT, YOU NEEDED GENIUS AT BLETCHLEY AND TURING WAS THAT GENIUS.“- ASA BRIGGS

From 1952 until his death in 1954, Turing worked on mathematical biology, specifically morphogenesis. His main interest in the field was understanding Fibonacci

phyllotaxis, which is the existence of Fibonacci numbers in plant structures.

MATHEMATICS

Alan Turing was highly influential in developing computer science, formalizing concepts such as “algorithm” and “computation” using the Turing

Machine [see next slide]

COMPUTER SCIENCE

The concept of Turing Machine involves specifying an extremely restricted set of numbers.

Alan Turing showed that more complex procedures could be built.

A Universal machine is a Turing Machine with the ability to read the description of any Turing machine, and carry out

what the machine would have done. Turing explained that complex tasks did not need complex

machines, but simply more storage space.

TURING MACHINE – HYPOTHETICAL DEVICE.

• Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952.• He accepted treatment (chemical castration) as an

alternative to prison.• Despite the contributes he made during his time there,

his security clearance was removed and he could not continue working with the government.

• Turing died in 1954 just before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning.

• His death was determined a suicide.

TRIAL & DEATH

• Helped developed computer science• “Turing machine” can be considered a model of a general

purpose computer.• Considered the parent of computer science theory and

A.I (Artificial Intelligence) • Helped crack German codes in WWII, wh

WHY ALAN TURING IS SIGNIFICANT

In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official

public apology for the way Turing was treated.

The Queen gave him a posthumous pardon on Christmas Eve, 2013.

[pictured below] Torch flame was passed on in front of Turing’s statue for the 2012 Olypmics on

the anniversary of his 100th birthday.

ALAN TURING TODAY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turinghttp://www.turing.org.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine

SOURCES