Father of modern computing, who was chemically castrated for being gay during World War II, is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Alan Turing, a crack code-breaker and visionary mathematician will be on the new British 50 pound note.
Turing, who eventually killed himself in 1954 after being subject to Victorian homophobic laws, will according to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, feature on the new note by end of 2021.
Turing, published a paper introducing an idea, which is considered to have formed the basis of modern computing, known as the Turing machine. It was a hypothetical device that could come up with a solution for any problem that was computable.
The genius' biography was turned into a feature film in 2014, The Imitation Game, in which Benedict Cumberbatch played Turing.
Mark Carney said, "As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing's contributions were far ranging and path breaking."
During World War II, Turing helped decipher messages sent by the Nazis. His efforts are now credited with saving several lives and hastened the end of World War II. But, for several decades his work to crack Germany's Enigma code has remained a secret.
The note features a ticker tape of binary code that spells out his birthday (June 23, 1912), and depicts the "British Bombe" machine that helped break the Enigma code. Turing received Royal pardon in 2013 after several supporters of the mathematician campaigned for him to receive greater recognition for his work and acknowledgement that his conviction for homosexual activity was wrong.
British prime minister Gordon Brown, in 2009, apologized for Turing's treatment by the justice system in the 1950s.
