Alan Turing

Not only was Turing one of the founders of computer science, he also helped the British military break Nazi codes, allowing them to decipher messages that helped the Allies win World War II. Turing was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence; he developed the Turing test, which determines whether a machine is capable of intelligence like that of a human being. Despite his impressive list of accomplishments, Turing was persecuted for his homosexuality. Sidebars offer extra information about topics such as Bletchley Park, ciphers, and the times Turing lived in, while a timeline serves as a quick reference for the chronology of key events in Turing’s life.