Alan Turing: the enigma

Alan Turing: The Enigma

Website maintained by biographer Andrew Hodges

This website is an electronic extension of the biography

Alan Turing: The Enigma,

and provides a Book Update section.

Who was Alan Turing?

Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher,
codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time:

Statement of apology by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, 10 September 2009:
... a quite brilliant mathematician... whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war... horrifying that he was treated so inhumanely... in music by the Pet Shop Boys, 23 July 2014.

1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
1926-31: Sherborne School
1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
1932-35: Quantum mechanics, probability, logic. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge
1936: The Turing machine, computability, universal machine
1936-38: Princeton University. Ph.D. Logic, algebra, number theory
1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher machine
1939-40: The Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma, saving battle of the Atlantic
1943-45: Chief Anglo-American crypto consultant. Electronic work.
1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
1946: Computer and software design leading the world.
1947-48: Programming, neural nets, and artificial intelligence
1948: Manchester University, first serious mathematical use of a computer
1950: The Turing Test for machine intelligence
1951: Elected FRS. Non-linear theory of biological growth
1952: Arrested as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
1954 (7 June): Death (suicide) by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire.