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