Alan Turing, the man recognised as the father of modern computer science, will be honored by appearing on a United Kingdom banknote. Mr Turing was chosen ahead of many notable British historical figures to be the face of the new £50 note. Turing was instrumental in helping Britain and its allies win World War II. He helped to crack the Enigma code the Nazis used to send messages to military commanders. He invented a giant computer to do so. The computer ushered in the birth of modern computing and the start of artificial intelligence.
Alan Turing was a maths genius and excelled in the sciences. He was born in London in 1912 and graduated from Cambridge University. He outlined his vision of creating an algorithm-based computing machine. He said: "This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be." His idea is behind all today's computers. Despite his pivotal role in ending WWII, he was persecuted after the war for being homosexual. Being gay was illegal in the UK until 1967. Turing died in 1954, aged 41, in what police said was suicide.