NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ ENIGMA ñ you may have seen the movie, read the book or downloaded a software simulation of the secret code machine the Germans used in World War II. Now you have an opportunity to hear a firsthand account of the code-breaking effort that made a major contribution to defeating Nazi Germany.
"Code-breaking in World War II with Alan Turing" is the title of a free public lecture that will be given by Peter Hilton, distinguished professor emeritus at the State University of New York-Binghamton, on Friday, October 15, at 6:30 p.m. in Stevenson Center Room 4309 on the Vanderbilt campus.
Hilton was just 18 and an undergraduate at Oxford University when he was recruited to work at Bletchley Park, Britain’s World War II intelligence center, during the effort to break German secret codes. He was especially involved in efforts to understand the "Fish" machine that succeeded "Enigma." In his talk, Hilton will describe the nature of the code-breaking work that the group did and will reminisce about his experiences, paying particular attention to the character, personality and genius of Alan Turing, the intellectual leader of the group.
It was at Bletchley Park that Hilton met the prominent mathematician J. H. C. Whitehead. After the war, he became Whitehead’s graduate student at Oxford. Hilton subsequently held positions at Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham before moving to the U.S. Since then he has served on the faculty at Cornell, the University of Washington, Case Western Reserve and Binghamton. In the 1970s, concurrently with his academic positions, he served as director of mathematical activities at the Battelle Institute. He has authored more than 300 papers and 20 books on mathematical subjects, as well as a number of papers on math education and other subjects.
Media contact: David F. Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
David.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu