In January 1940 Alan Turing was sent to Paris to exchange vital knowhow with the Polish codebreakers, then working in exile for French intelligence. What was Alan Turing's role in the breaking of Enigma? To what extent did his work proceed independently and to what extent was it building on the work done in Poland in the 1930s? What was the significance of the 1940 meeting? And how did Alan Turing's work on Enigma shape his achievements in the years to come? The lecture will look at these questions, and position the British work on Enigma into the context of both the Polish achievements and Alan Turing's remarkable life.

The City of Poznan and the Adam Mickiewicz University invite you to an open lecture by Sir John Dermot Turing. The lecture The "unknow' Alan Turing will be held on 25th May 2016, at 15:30 in Culture Centre ZAMEK, Święty Marcin Street 80/82

The "unknow' Alan Turing

Alan Turing is of course rather far from being unknown. His roles in laying the foundations of computer science and in devising a machine method for breaking into the Enigma cipher at Bletchley Park are prominent in the popular imagination. This talk will look at some of the lesser known aspects of his life and work. How did Alan Turing spend the second part of World War 2? Until recently the answer to this question has been covered by the British Official Secrets Act. And after World War 2, what was the focus of his research? The talk also looks at Alan Turing's pioneering use of the Manchester Mark I computer to solve some of the fundamental questions of developmental biology.