Alan Turing enthusiasts will be pleased to read in the news recently that two 70 year old papers written by the mathematical genius whilst he was working at Bletchley Park, are now available to be viewed at the National Archives at Kew.

Both papers talk about mathematical approaches to code breaking and are titled: “The Applications of Probability to Crypt” and “Paper on the Statistics of Repetitions”.

They had previously been restricted by GCHQ, who have now completed all projects involving these papers and have released them to the general public as part of celebrations being held this year on the centenary of Turing’s birth. Further information on this can be found on the GCGQ Press Release web page.

You can find an interesting and informative biography on Alan Turing on the Archives website, written by our experienced Archivists. 

There is also information regarding the history of code breaking which covers Turing and the work he did whilst at Bletchley Park during WW2. 

The IET also holds an annual Prestige Lecture  in honour of Alan Turing and this year, because of his centenary, the IET got together with the BCS (British Computer Society) to celebrate his great work. A live webcast of the lecture which was held on the 21^st February 2012 is available to view on this page with additional references available for further reading.

Did you attend this lecture? Let us know how you felt the event went via this blog.

Further information on Alan Turing celebrations ongoing this year are available on the 2012 Alan Turing year website.

Written by Hazel Jones, Senior Librarian, IET Library.