Alan Turing pardon petition launched

A University of Leeds academic is supporting an e-petition calling on the Government to posthumously pardon the mathematician and computer pioneer Alan Turing for his conviction of gross indecency. Turing worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War to crack German ciphers and is often cited as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. 2012 has been designated The Alan Turing Year. "A pardon from the Government in the centenary year of Turing's birth would be warmly welcomed by his family, friends, colleagues and those in the scientific community who have benefitted from the foundations he laid," says Professor Barry Cooper, who chairs the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee and is based in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds. The petition was created following a Channel 4 documentary into the tormented life of Turing and has already received 2,750 signatories in fewer than ten days. It seeks a pardon from the government for Turing in the hope that it will act as an apology to other homosexual men who were convicted under these now defunct laws. During his time at Bletchley Park Turing 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.