TWO of Britain's most distinguished scientists have been honoured with new buildings named after them at QinetiQ.

Astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell, creator of the groundbreaking Jodrell Bank radio telescope, officially opened the building named after him at the site off St Andrew's Road last Friday.

A building named after Alan Turing, the father of computer science, was opened by Air Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, deputy chief of the defence staff.

The buildings are part of a multi-milllion pound redevelopment of the whole QinetiQ campus.

Sir Bernard Lovell was a scientist at TRE, QinetiQ's ancestor, during the Second World War, when he worked on top-secret radar projects.

He told dignitaries at the opening that his days at TRE were rather different to the present.

He said: "During the war, I was never asked how much it would cost to do something. They just said 'Can you do it?'

"I wish you good fortune and good progress in science." he concluded.

After the war, Sir Bernard went on to develop the infant field of radio-astronomy, building the world-famous 250-foot radio-telescope dish in Cheshire.

Like Sir Bernard, Alan Turing played a leading role in a secret war-winning project - in this case the decoding of the German Enigma codes.

A mathematical genius, Turing went on to formulate the basic postulates of computer science, making him one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century.

However, he never saw the computer age come to fruition; he killed himself in 1954 after his security clearance was revoked due to his homosexuality.