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Alan Turing's story begins on June 23rd, 1912–the day he was born. -
Turing spent his early years at the Sherborne School. This was a boarding school in Dorset where his mind was molded as he studied advanced scientific theories. As a young student, he showed great potential and captured the attention of his teachers. -
In 1930, Turing's best friend and peer, Christopher Morcom, died from tuberculosis. Morcom was gifted like Turing. In his grief, Turing became obsessed with the mind and brain. -
Turing won a scholarship to attend King's College in Cambridge–a prestigious school. While there, he studied mathematics. -
Turing published a paper on computable numbers that is now known as the foundation of modern computing. -
In 1939, Turing joined the British government's code-breaking department to help with the war effort. With the assistance of other mathematicians, Turing created a machine called the "Bombe" that was able to decode messages sent by the German Enigma machine. -
Another wartime achievement made by Turing was the development of a system that could encrypt and decrypt spoken conversations over telephone. This was revolutionary technology, but it was not used for the war effort. -
Turing was given a position at the National Physical Laboratory. -
Turing revealed his design for an Automatic Computing Engine, which we now recognize as the design for the first computer. -
In 1950, Turing published a paper titled "Can Machines Think?" This is his most famous work. He detailed the procedure that is now infamously known as the Turing test. The Turing test was used to determine whether a "machine could imitate human conversation" (Aron). Citation: Aron, Jacob. “Alan Turing.” New Scientist, www.newscientist.com/people/alan-turing/. -
In 1951, Turing was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. -
Turing was convicted of gross indecency for having an affair with a man. All homosexual activity was illegal at the time. -
In 1952, Turing published a paper called "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis." In this paper, he describes the "mathematically convenient, though biologically unusual system" of morphogens (Turing 37). Citation:
Turing, Alan. "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences. 1952, Vol 237, Issue 641, pp. 37-72. groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/amorphous/6.978/papers/turing-chemical-basis.pdf. -
Turing passed away in 1954 at the age of 42. The coroner ruled his death a suicide. -
A royal pardon was issued posthumously for Turing's conviction of gross indecency from 1952.