The Alan Turing Home Page
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A portrait of Alan Mathison Turing, F.R.S., O.B.E. in 1951
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This Page is the gateway and guide
to this large Website
dedicated to Alan Turing (1912-1954). Behind it lie 23 further pages for you to explore. |
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Who was Alan Turing?
Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher,
codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time:
1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
1926-31: Sherborne School
1928: Studies relativity
1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
1932-35: Studies quantum mechanics, probability, logic
1935: Elected fellow of King's College, Cambridge
1936: The Turing machine: On Computable Numbers... submitted
1936-38: At Princeton University. Ph.D. Papers in logic, algebra, number theory
1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher problem
1939-40 Devises the Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma cipher, saving battle of the Atlantic
1943-45: Chief Anglo-American consultant. Introduced to electronics
1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
1946: Computer design, leading the world, formally accepted
1947-48: Papers on programming, neural nets, and prospects for artificial intelligence
1948: Manchester University
1949: Work on programming and world's first serious use of a computer
1950: Philosophical paper on machine intelligence: the Turing Test
1951: Elected FRS. Paper on non-linear morphogenesis theory
1952: Arrested and tried as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
1954 (7 June): Death by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
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To find out more: read a short biography.
It is an extended version of the new Turing entry I have written for the British Dictionary of National Biography.
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Now browse on to find out much more in...
The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook
Here the emphasis is on links with other Internet sites, supported by many extra pictures and comments from my own resources. It is not complete or consistent in style and like the Internet will be in perpetual development.Alan Turing was himself very informal in manner, even though precise in ideas. The Scrapbook style reflects not only the seriousness and tragedy of his life and work, but also its humour and unconventionality and prophetic sense for the modern world he did not live to see.
The Scrapbook now runs over twelve pages, full of facts and pictures and links:
There is very much more about Alan Turing in my book:
Alan Turing: the Enigma
Please respect the work which has gone into this Site.
If you do more than read the material, for instance by using it for a student project,
you should reciprocate by ordering, or getting your library to order, a copy of my book.
Alan Turing as a philosopher
I have written a new 58-page text on Alan Turing as a philosopher of Mind.
It is Turing, no. 3 of a series on The Great Philosophers published by Phoenix (London) in November 1997.
It gives a fresh look at the Turing machine, computability and the Turing test.
More details and extracts from the text
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More for Scholars:
About This Web Site
The Alan Turing Website is hosted by
Wadham College, Oxford
and maintained by me, Andrew Hodges.There is another copy of it at
Oxford University Computing Services. |
It is part of a yet larger site
covering my work with
Roger Penrose and other interests.
For an overview please visit my |
Main Page |
If you are interested in this Website and its future development, please go to the
VISITORS PAGE
for more information.
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andrew.hodges@wadh.ox.ac.ukLast updated 3 December 1997.
Virtual Museum of Computing
