Living in his native England during World War II, Alan Turing was instrumental in deciphering German messages encrypted by the Enigma cipher machine. Shortly after the war, he designed computers—first for the British government (1945 to 1948), then for the University of Manchester (1948 to 1954). He also wrote several works on the field of artificial intelligence, a study in its infancy at the time, and developed the theory of the Turing test, in which a computer is tested to see if it is capable of humanlike thought. Tragically, Turing, who is often considered the founder of computer science, committed suicide in 1954.