Prof. Lynn Conway was a transgender woman who revolutionised technology, helping to create the microchip we still use today in PCs and smartphones.

Conway began her medical transition in the ’60s. She had worked at IBM pre-transition, but in 1968, the organisation fired her due for undergoing gender-affirming surgery. 

After working at IBM, she joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department of the University of Michigan in the 1980s and 1990s. There, she developed the microchip design, which was then fueled by Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre.

 

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Although she caused massive achievements in EECS, she wanted to keep her accomplishments undercover as she was afraid of her past being discovered if she was forced into the spotlight.

“I didn’t mind being almost invisible in my field back then or that no one had a clue what I was really doing, much less who was doing it,” Conway wrote in the Huffington Post in 2013. “I was thrilled to even have a job.”

Conway worked alongside Carver Mead, a male co-worker who was given all the credit as people assumed he was the project’s lead. All the awards went to Mead, failing to recognise their joint efforts. 

Lynn and other women who have made a great impact on science have been overlooked or unrecognised for decades. The design is known as The Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution, her name put last. 

After her retirement in 1999, Lynn came out on her website, telling everyone her truth. She continued to be active on her site, discussing her life and trans issues.

Conway became a vocal supporter of trans rights and other trans people in high tech, and 52 years after firing her, IBM published an apology to Conway.

Prof. Lynn Conway died on June 9, 2024, due to a heart condition. She lived a long life, dying at 86.