Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Alan Turing (1912 to 1954) was a British mathematician and logician whose work laid the foundations of modern computing and artificial intelligence. During World War II he led codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park that cracked the German Enigma cipher, work widely credited with shortening the war and saving many lives. In 1952 Turing was convicted of gross indecency for a relationship with another man, then a crime in Britain, and was subjected to court-ordered hormone treatment known as chemical castration. He lost his security clearance and died in 1954 at age 41, in what was ruled a suicide. In 2013 Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous royal pardon, and in 2021 the Bank of England honored him on the £50 note.