Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English computer scientist whose work was foundational in the development of early computers and artificial intelligence. During World War II, he worked for the British military analyzing German naval transmissions that were specially encrypted using a device called the Enigma machine. Turing was able to crack the code to the Enigma machine and provide information to the Allied war effort that severely hindered the German military. Despite this achievement and Turing’s other contributions to the field of mathematics following the end of World War II, the British government prosecuted him for homosexual acts in 1952. This conviction barred him from much of his work and led to the mathematics and computer science communities ignoring him. Two years later, Turing committed suicide. Despite his demeaning and tragic end, Turing is today recognized as one of the fathers of computer science and an important contributor to the Allied victory in World War II.
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