Lecture to highlight Alan Turing’s genius

MEDIA RELEASE

20 February 2015

___________________________________________________________

Lecture to highlight Alan Turing’s genius

A lecture about the work of Alan Turing, often dubbed the father of modern computing and the subject of the film The Imitation Game, will be given at Victoria University of Wellington next week.

Professor Rod Downey from the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research at Victoria will deliver the public lecture in which he aims to give an accurate picture of Turing’s work and his place in history.

Professor Downey has spent the last 35 years researching in the area of the theory of computation and recently edited the book Turing’s Legacy: Developments from Turing’s Ideas in Logic.

Alan Turing was a mathematician and logician whose ideas led to the development of the modern computer and artificial intelligence. He has recently come to popular attention through The Imitation Game which focuses on his role in cracking intercepted coded messages in Britain during the Second World War.

Professor Downey says the film “horribly mangles” Turing’s contribution, and the nature of Bletchley Park, the central site of the United Kingdom’s Government Code and Cypher School which was a key hub for penetrating communications during the Second World War.

Professor Downey describes Turing as one of the geniuses of the twentieth century.

While Professor Downey will spend a small part of his lecture discussing things the film got wrong, most of his address will focus on mathematics, especially the development of computers and how cryptanalysis worked at Bletchley Park. He will pay particular attention to covering the range and variety of Turing’s work and the impact it has had.

“Turing was a prodigy, a brilliant and original man who was terribly treated for being gay. His story is a study in ideas and social commentary.”

In his lecture, Professor Downey will cover a brief history of ciphers, the work done by the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park and how the Enigma machine works, all of which are portrayed in The Imitation Game.

Professor Downey will also discuss some of Turing’s less known work in areas including Biology.

What: Public Lecture: Alan Turing, Computing, Bletchley and Mathematics

When: Thursday 26 February, 5.30pm

Where: Government Buildings, Lecture Theatre 2, Lambton Quay

RSVP: siyun.thompson@ecs.vuw.ac.nz

This public lecture is the first in a series of events being run by Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science with the aim of making science more accessible.

Rod Downey, FRSNZ, is a professor of mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington. His research is in the theory of computation and complexity theory. He is the only person in New Zealand who both is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Mathematical Society. During the Alan Turing year (2012 – centenary of Alan Turing’s birth) he was one of the foundation fellows at the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge for the Alan Turing Programme. He recently edited the volume Turing's Legacy for the Association for Symbolic Logic. He has won numerous awards for his work including a James Cook and Maclaurin Fellowship, the Shoenfield Prize from the ASL, and the Nerode Prize from the EATCS.

© Scoop Media