Definition
Plain language
Computing's top prize, roughly the field's Nobel.
As stated in the literature
ACM's annual award for lasting contributions to computing; the lecture accompanying it is where Thompson presented the compiler backdoor.
Why it matters: It marks the ideas the computing field itself considers foundational, which is why arguments made in those lectures get quoted long after the ceremony.
For example, winners give an acceptance lecture that often becomes a landmark statement of an idea, read for decades afterward.
Heard on the show
“So, in 1984, Ken Thompson gave his Turing Award lecture.”Episode 268 — A Rigged Benchmark Taught a Self-Improving Agent to Always Disable SSL