The computer world has a relatively recent history, as it took its first steps during World War II when the Allies tried to crack the secret codes of the Nazis. In that historical context, the brilliant English mathematician Alan Turing became the leader of the Enigma project. The results obtained were decisive in defeating Nazism and, at the same time, preventing the death of millions of people. In recognition of his task, the Turing Prize was created, considered the Nobel Prize for Computing. Turing Award
This award recognizes the work of those who have made relevant contributions in the field of Computer Science
The entity that grants this recognition is ACM, an acronym that corresponds to the Association for Computing Machinery.
The organization was founded in 1947 and has its official headquarters in New York City. The awards awarded annually since 1966 have recognized the most outstanding researchers in some dimension of computing ( artificial intelligence, numerical analysis, databases, programming languages, analysis of algorithms, operating systems, etc.). Since 2014, the person awarded receives one million dollars and Google is the sponsoring company. Turing Award
An award that repairs an injustice
Alan Turing’s intellectual brilliance did not go unnoticed by the British secret services, as a result of which he was commissioned to create a machine designed to know the messages encrypted by the Nazis. Despite his undeniable achievements in the field of artificial intelligence and cybernetics, he was prosecuted and convicted of homosexuality after the end of World War II.
The charges of sexual perversion did not land him in jail, as Turing accepted an alternative: undergoing hormonal treatment aimed at chemical castration . The process caused her erectile dysfunction and important physical changes. In 1954, his body appeared lifeless and the causes of death were never fully explained. His personal friends did not believe in the suicide thesis, as the mathematician left no farewell letter and was not particularly depressed in the days before his death. Turing Award
In the 2014 movie “Imitation Games”, actor Benedict Cumberbatch brought the father of computing to life
There are several books about his life trajectory and scientific career, but one of them is especially recommended: “Alan Turing: the man who knew too much”, by David Leavitt.
Faced with the media pressure exerted by the seventh art and the social awareness that presented itself in relation to the figure of Turing, Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain granted him a post-mortem apology in 2013, a year before the film’s release . Many scientists had been calling for such recognition for years, but evidently more exposure was needed for royalty to speak out and establish a modicum of justice and recognition. Turing Award
