Alan Turing was a
brilliant British mathematician who took a leading role in breaking Nazi
ciphers during WWII. In his seminal 1936 paper, he proved that there cannot
exist any universal algorithmic method of determining truth in mathematics, and
that mathematics will always contain undecidable propositions. His work is
widely acknowledged as foundational research of computer science and artificial
intelligence.
Early Life
English scientist Alan
Turing was born Alan Mathison Turing on June 23, 1912, in Maida Vale, London,
England. At a young age, he displayed signs of high intelligence, which some of
his teachers recognized, but did not necessarily respect. When Turing attended
the well-known independent Sherborne School at the age of 13, he became
particularly interested in math and science.
After Sherborne, Turing
enrolled at King's College (University of Cambridge) in Cambridge, England,
studying there from 1931 to 1934. As a result of his dissertation, in which he
proved the central limit theorem, Turing was elected a fellow at the school
upon his graduation.
In 1936, Turing
delivered a paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the
Entscheidungsproblem," in which he presented the notion of a universal
machine (later called the “Universal Turing Machine," and then the
"Turing machine") capable of computing anything that is computable:
It is considered the precursor to the modern computer.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Turing
https://www.biography.com/scientist/alan-turing
