Turing icon
The
Alan Turing
Home Page
 
 

Maintained by Andrew Hodges,
author of Alan Turing: the Enigma.

 
This Page is the gateway and guide
to a large Website
dedicated to Alan Turing (1912-1954).


Encyclopaedia Britannica


 
 
'One of the world's top 100 websites...
information-packed' 
.net magazine, August 1998.

A branch of the

Virtual Museum of Computing

 

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
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.

Alan Turing in 1946.
Full picture here
 

My biography of Alan Turing

The new American edition of the book is now available. 
 

This website complements my book: 

Alan Turing: the Enigma

See also my Book Update section

 
 

A short on-line biography

On this website I offer an extended version of the entry on Alan Turing that I wrote in 1995 for the British Dictionary of National Biography.
Alan Turing's family origins and childhood
the inspiration of Christopher Morcom in his early life
the Turing Machine, foundation of modern computer science
his critical codebreaking work in the Second World War
the consequent emergence of his electronic computer plan, and its failure
the first working computer, the Turing Test, and biological growth
his arrest, trial, punishment, Cold War situation, new ideas and sudden death.
 

This is followed by the Oration at Alan Turing's Birthplace
that I delivered on 23 June 1998.

 

The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook

These pages are full of images and links to exploit the interactive and co-operative world of the Web as created by Alan Turing's invention, the computer. They don't try to give a complete picture and they don't have a consistent style. They will be in perpetual development as the Internet expands.

The Scrapbook now runs over nineteen pages:
 
 

Empire of the mind, 1912-1928
 

Scrapbook Index
 
The inspiration of life and death, 1928-1932
Turing Machines, with a Turing Machine Simulated in Java
Critical Cryptanalysis in the Second World War
Turing's Treatise on the Enigma
Turing as the UK - USA Link, 1942 onwards 
The origins of Artificial Intelligence
Who invented the computer?
The World Class Distance Runner
Machines and men's minds, Manchester, 1948-1950
The Turing (Sex) Test in theory... and the Turing Test in Practice.
Growth, form and crisis, 1951-1952
Wondrous Light, the uncompleted work 1952-1954
Robin Gandy (1919-1995)
Breaking the Code: Alan Turing on stage and screen
Memorials to Alan Turing... and the Manchester memorial site
Back to the Future (1998-????)
 
 

Alan Turing as a philosopher

I have written a short text on Alan Turing as a philosopher of Mind. 

More details, an extract from the text, translations and reviews

Amazon page with information and review.

 

Bibliography

 A complete listing of Alan Turing's works

Archives and Photographs


NPG
Notes on archives of Turing's manuscripts and photographs of him.
 
 

My Papers

On-line versions of papers by me on
 
  • Turing's Treatise on the Enigma

  •  

     

  • The Nature of Turing and the Physical World

  •  

     

  • Uncomputability in the work of Alan Turing and Roger Penrose
  •  



    My Main Page

    Start
    Scrapbook Tour

    Bibliography

    My Book
     

    I welcome suggestions on content and presentation. 
    Email me:

    andrew@synth.co.uk

    Last updated 19 January 2001.

    In Association with Amazon.com
    for my book

    Página creada y actualizada por grupo "mmm".
    Para cualquier cambio, sugerencia,etc. contactar con: fores@uv.es
    © a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
    Universitat de València Press
    Creada: 22/02/2000 Última Actualización: 11/03/2000