Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

Banknote concept from the Bank of England

King's alumnus Alan Turing will appear on the new £50 polymer note, expected to enter circulation by the end of 2021.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, commented:

“Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today. As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.” 

Turing was an undergraduate Mathematics student at King’s, gaining his degree with first-class honours in 1934. A year later, on the strength of his mathematical dissertation, he was elected a Fellow of the College.

In 1936 Turing developed his single most important idea, 'On Computable Numbers', which gave birth to the idea of a computer. His subsequent code-breaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War is estimated to have saved over 14 million lives, shortening the war in Europe by several years through cracking the German ‘Enigma’ cipher.

After the war, Turing's highly original mathematical ideas and pioneering work in theoretical computer science continued. His 'Turing Test' examined the behaviour necessary for a machine to be considered intelligent, and was the foundation of what we now know as artificial intelligence.

In 1954, at the age of 41, Turing took his own life after being prosecuted for homosexual acts, still considered criminal in the UK at the time. Fifty-nine years later, in 2013, he was posthumously pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Alan Turing Initiative

The Alan Turing Initiative at King's pays homage to this profound thinker, whose pioneering ideas changed our world and continue to hold significant potential for our future. As part of the Initiative, we are aspiring to develop an ambitious new programme that will continue to transform our world, with a series of funding opportunities focusing on computer science, mathematics, biotechnology, and the history and politics of sexuality and gender.

To find out more about the Turing Initiative and how you can help, please see the Turing Initiative pages here.

To read the full press release from the Bank of England, please see the following link.

news
All the recent news from King's College, from the latest cutting-edge research to announcements from the Chapel and Choir.

Similar Entries

164847119_10158388546741448_6521481542956048937_n

The new £50 note, featuring King's alumnus Alan Turing, will be in circulation from 23 June 2021.

23june_crop

The College is marking the anniversary of the birthday of Alan Turing (KC 1931) on 23 June by flying the rainbow flag.

A generous philanthropic gift will support the creation of a new teaching position in Computer Science.

dsc_0320

Apinan Hasthanasombat has been appointed as a College Teaching Officer in Computer Science. 

turing_31

Cambridge City Council has granted planning permission for the College to install a sculpture in commemoration of Alan Turing

c528-1-400

A new work by Sir Antony Gormley has been officially unveiled at King’s College Cambridge. The sculpture, titled 'True, for Alan Turing', stands 3.7 meters tall and sits at the heart of the College, between Gibbs Building and Webb’s Court.