Alan M. Turing

A great visionary of the computer field, Turing used his mathematical abilities to apply the concept of the algorithm to the digital computer. His research into the relationships between machines and nature created the field of artificial intelligence. Turing left King's College, Cambridge University, in 1936 for Princeton University, where he began to explore what came to be called the "Turing Machine." This computing machine could read a series of ones and zeros from a tape—a forerunner of today's multipurpose computers. Turing continued his research at the National Physical Laboratory, where he developed the Automatic Computing Engine, one of the first attempts at creating a truly digital computer. In 1950, he wrote a paper describing what is now known as the "Turing Test," which was used to determine the presence of intelligence in a machine.