Without Turing's work, computers as we know them would not exist, or at least the trajectory of their development would have been altered or delayed. As the first to map out the digital universe, his work now lies at the root of everything involving computer science.

"A polymath of the highest order, Turing left a list of achievements stretching far beyond the realm of computer science," wrote .

Jackson noted that during World War II, Turing was instrumental in cracking German encrypted messages, allowing the British to anticipate Germany's actions and ultimately help win the war.

As for his math achievements, he devised a conceptual computing machine called the Turing Machine that would use an infinitely long piece of tape containing a series of symbols. A machine head could read the symbols and add its own, as well as move to different parts of the tape, one symbol at a time.

Since infinite tapes obviously don't exist, a Turing Machine couldn't actually be created, but the concept brought to life invaluable and transformative ideas. Modern day computers use the binary logic of 1s and Os and work like the Turing Machine, minus the tape.