Three Polish mathematicians have been honoured with coveted Milestone Award by a world engineers organisation Tuesday for their crucial work that ended World War II.
Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski were awarded for breaking the codes of the German Enigma cipher machine in 1932, Xinhua reported.
During the ceremony at the Warsaw University of Technology, Roberto de Marca, president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), emphasised that it was a milestone which contributed to ending the World War II and saving people's lives.
The three late mathematicians were employed in 1930 in the Cipher Bureau of the Polish Army to work out the secret operation of electro-mechanical German Enigma cipher machine.
They managed to read the first information in 1932.
In 1939, Polish military authorities sent the copies of Enigma machine along with the information about the broken code to France and Great Britain.
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According to many historians, this disclosure enabled the Allies forces to tackle their enemies more effectively.
IEEE is the world's largest association of professional technicians, engineers and scientists in the area of electrical engineering and electronics.
Milestone Award honours the academic achievements significantly changing the world.
The honours were given, among others, to Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Nikola Tesla.