ALAN TURING: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

... by Daniel Villena Lillo

Alan Turing was born in 1912 and he died in 1954 in England. He is best known for his contribution to the decipherment of the Enigma machine, used by Germany in World War II to communicate securely and coordinate attacks.

He grew up in a rich family and was educated since he was very young, this made him able to get a degree in mathematics in the University of Cambridge. He is also considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time and he created the infamous Turing machine, very useful for the mathematicians at the time, making him one of the firsts computer scientists in history.

When he started working for England's Government Code and Cypher School, he came up with the idea of using a code-breaking machine based on mechanical rotors to decipher the messages from Germany that were intercepted by the Allies.The Allies used the information in the deciphered messages to win the final and decisive battles from the war like the Battle of the Atlantic. Some experts assure that this shortened the war by almost 2 years, saving millions of lives in the process.

Sadly, due to the homophobic society that there was in England at that moment, Alan Turing was charged with gross indecency because he mantained a sexual relationship with another man, a fact which was a crime in United Kingdom in 1952. This would also end with his career due to the social margination he suffered in relation to this.

He was later found dead in 1954, with most of the people thinking he commited suicide with a poisonous cyanure pill.