The asteroid
10204 Turing (1997 PK1) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on August 1, 1997 by P. G. Comba at Prescott. The observatory was built by Comba himself in the grounds of his home and he discover over 600 asteroids. He sold his house and
observatory in 2010 and the new owner is intending to provide free use of the facilities to local schools.
The Alan Turing Statue
He is depicted seated on a bench wearing a suit and tie and is holding an apple in his right hand.
The statue was cast in bronze in China at a cost of £16,000 rather than the £50,000 it would have cost in the UK.
This extract from the Wikipedia page about
Alan Turing gives details of his lfe.
"Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (pron.: /'tj??r??/ tewr-ing; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954), was a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, giving a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer.[2][3][4] Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.[5]
During World War II, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking centre. For a time he was head of Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including the method of the bombe, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.
After the war, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the ACE, one of the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1948 Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Laboratory at Manchester University, where he assisted in the development of the Manchester computers[6] and became interested in mathematical biology. He wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis, and predicted oscillating chemical reactions such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, which were first observed in the 1960s.
Turing's homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, just over two weeks before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined that his death was suicide; his mother and some others believed his death was accidental. On 10 September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for "the appalling way he was treated". As of May 2012, a private member's bill was before the House of Lords which would grant Turing a statutory pardon if enacted.[7]"
Alan Turing had worked at Manchester University before his death and the statue is situated outside the Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Office of the University of Manchester in Sackville Gardens.
On the bench behind the statues back is the following inscription.
Alan Mathison Turing 1912-1954
IEKYF RQMSI ADXUO KVKZC GUBJ
The strange looking code is a translation of 'Founder of Computer Science' as it would appear if encoded by an Enigma machine. However this can't be a true Enigma coding because there is a letter "U" at position 14 of both the plain-text and the cipher and an Enigma machine would't do that.
There is also a plaque on the floor at his feet.
Alan Mathison Turing
1912 - 1954
Father of Computer Science
Mathematician, Logician
wartime codebreaker
Victim of Prejudice
"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth
but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere
like that of sculpture" - Bertrand Russell