Alan Turing, man widely recognised as being father of modern computer science, has been honored by being selected to appear on United Kingdom banknote. Mr Turing was chosen ahead of wealth of notable British historical figures and luminaries to be face of new £50 note. Turing was instrumental in helping Britain and its allies win World War II. He led team of codebreakers to crack Enigma code the Nazis used to send messages to warships and military commanders. He invented now famous British Bombe to do this. This was a giant computer, which ushered in birth of modern computing and beginnings of artificial intelligence.
Alan Turing was mathematical genius who also excelled in sciences. He was born in London in 1912. He graduated from Cambridge University and then outlined his vision for creating algorithm-based computing machine. He said of his invention: "This is only foretaste of what is to come, and only shadow of what is going to be." His idea is central to computers we use today. His brilliance led to his being asked to join the WWII code-breaking team. Despite his pivotal role in ending that war, he was persecuted in post-war years for being homosexual. Being gay was illegal in UK until 1967. He chose to be chemically castrated rather than go to prison. Turing died in 1954, aged 41, in apparent suicide.
