Artificial intelligence pioneer and member of the British WWII codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, Donald Michie, and his ex-wife, distinguished geneticist Dr. Anne McLaren were killed Saturday in a highway accident outside London.

The boffins at Bletchley Park never have gotten the kind of visibility they deserve here in America. Michie was part of the team (with other luminaries like Alan Turing) that used the first big-scale computers to crack German codes and ciphers, an achievement which almost certainly influenced the course of the war in Europe.

After the war, Michie worked at the University of Edinburgh and was a leading theorist of machine intelligence. He may not be a household name, but his work saved uncounted lives and contributed to the computers we take for granted today.

Condolences to his family, friends, and students.