Lynn Conway

Lynn Conway
Conway in 2006
Born	(1938-01-02)January 2, 1938 Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Died	June 9, 2024(2024-06-09) (aged 86) Jackson, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University
Known for	Mead–Conway VLSI chip design revolution transgender activism
Spouse	Charles Rogers ​ (m. 2002)​
Awards	Harold Pender Award (1984) John Price Wetherill Medal (1985) Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award (1985) National Academy of Engineering (1989) Computer Pioneer Award (2009) Computer History Museum Fellow (2014)[1] IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal (2015) National Inventors Hall of Fame (2023)
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science Electrical engineering
Institutions	IBM Advanced Computing Systems (1964–68), Memorex, Xerox PARC (1970s), DARPA, University of Michigan

Lynn Ann Conway (January 2, 1938 – June 9, 2024) was an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, and transgender activist.

Conway worked at IBM in the 1960s and invented generalized dynamic instruction handling, a key advance used in out-of-order execution, used by most modern computer processors to improve performance. IBM fired Conway in 1968 after she revealed her intention to undergo a gender transition.

After completing her transition she took a new name and identity and restarted her career. She joined Xerox PARC in 1973, where she led the "LSI Systems" group. She initiated the Mead–Conway VLSI chip design revolution in very large-scale integrated (VLSI) microchip design. That revolution spread rapidly through the research universities and computing industries during the 1980s, incubating an emerging electronic design automation industry, spawning the modern 'foundry' infrastructure for chip design and production, and triggering a rush of impactful high-tech startups in the 1980s and 1990s.

She began quietly coming out in 1999 and began working in transgender activism. In 2020, IBM apologized for firing her 52 years earlier.