Some of you only might know the name Turing from NVIDIA processors. Obviously, their GPUs are based on famous mathematicians, astronomers and such. The Bank of England has selected the portrait of mathematician and code cracker Alan Turing for the new 50 pound note. 

In addition to the face of Turing, the 50-pound bill also shows work by the computer pioneer. The draft version shows, among other things, a computer and Turing formulas. What the ticket will ultimately look like is only announced shortly before the introduction in 2020. In 2018 it was decided that a scientist would be placed on the new ticket. There were 989 nominees, of whom twelve were shortlisted. Among others, Stephen Hawking (physicist and cosmologist) and Rosalind Franklin (discoverer of DNA structure) were on the list. Turing became best known for his machine designs with which he and his team managed to crack the German Enigma code during the Second World War. He invented the foundation for the modern computer and stood at the cradle of artificial intelligence. For example, he said in 1950 that a computer could eventually think itself. Turing devised a test to test the intelligence of robots and computers, we now all know it as the turing test (go watch Ex Machina the movie).

Turing was homosexual and was convicted in 1952 of "very indecent behavior". Homosexuality was forbidden back then. He could not deal with that and two years later he died of cyanide poisoning. Research has shown that it was suicide. In 2009 the British government posthumously apologized.