Lynn Conway Explained

Lynn Conway
Birth Date:2 January 1938
Birth Place:Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Death Place:Jackson, Michigan, U.S.
Alma Mater:Columbia University

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

In the 1960s, while working at IBM, Conway invented generalized dynamic instruction handling, a key advancement 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, which the company apologized for in 2020.

Following her transition, Conway adopted a new name and identity and restarted her career. She worked at Xerox PARC from 1973 to 1983, where she led the "LSI Systems" group. She initiated the Mead–Conway VLSI chip design revolution in very large-scale integrated (VLSI) microchip design, which reshaped the field of microchip design during the 1980s.

Conway joined the University of Michigan as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science in 1985. She retired from active teaching and research in 1998 as professor emerita. Conway began publicly discussing her gender transition in 1999 and was a transgender activist until her death in 2024.

Early life and education

Conway was born in Mount Vernon, New York, on January 2, 1938 to Christine Alice (née Burney) Savage (1904–1977) and Rufus Savage (1904–1966).[1] [2] [3] [4] Raised as a boy, Conway was brought up in Hartsdale and White Plains, New York, as a shy child who experienced gender dysphoria. After her parents divorced in 1945, Conway and her younger brother, Blair Savage (1941–2022), were raised by their mother. Conway became fascinated by astronomy (building a 6inches reflector telescope one summer) and did well in math and science in school.

After graduating from White Plains High School in 1955, Conway entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began an attempted gender transition in 1957. Facing a lack of social and medical support, she withdrew from MIT in 1959 and eventually detransitioned.

After working as an electronics technician for several years, Conway resumed education at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, earning B.S. and M.S.E.E. degrees in 1962 and 1963.[5]

Early research at IBM

Conway was recruited by IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York, in 1964, and was soon selected to join the architecture team designing an advanced supercomputer, working alongside John Cocke, Brian Randell, Herbert Schorr, Ed Sussenguth, Fran Allen and other IBM researchers on the Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) project, inventing multiple-issue out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling while working there.[6] [7] [8] The Computer History Museum has stated that "The ACS architecture ... appears to have been the first 'superscalar' design".

Gender transition

After learning about Harry Benjamin's pioneering research in healthcare for transsexual women, which included the feasibility of sex reassignment surgery, Conway sought his assistance. Struggling with severe clinical depression due to gender dysphoria, she contacted Dr. Benjamin, who agreed to provide counseling and prescribed hormone replacement therapy, which Conway resumed in 1967.[9]

While struggling with life in a male role, Conway had married a woman in 1963 and had two children. Under the legal constraints then in place, she was denied access to their children after transitioning.[9]

Although she had hoped to be allowed to transition on the job, IBM fired Conway in 1968 after she revealed her intention to transition.[10] In 2020, IBM publicly apologized to Conway for firing her at a public event with Diane Gherson, then IBM's senior vice president of human relations. At the event, Conway was awarded the IBM Lifetime Achievement Award for her work at IBM and later work.[11] [12]

Post-transition career

Upon completing her gender transition in 1968, Conway took a new name and identity and restarted her career in stealth-mode as a contract programmer at Computer Applications, Inc. She then worked as a digital system designer and computer architect at Memorex from 1969 to 1972.[9] [13]

Conway joined Xerox PARC in 1973, where she led the "LSI Systems" group under Bert Sutherland.[14] [15] When in PARC, Conway founded the multiproject wafers (MPW) technology.[16] Collaborating with Ivan Sutherland and Carver Mead on very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design methodology, she co-authored Introduction to VLSI Systems, a groundbreaking work that would soon become a standard textbook in chip design, used in nearly 120 universities by 1983.[17] [18] [19] [20] With over 70,000 copies sold, and the new integration of her MPC79/MOSIS innovations, the Mead and Conway revolution became part of VLSI design.[18] [21]

In 1978, Conway served as a visiting associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, teaching a now-famous VLSI design course based on a Mead–Conway text draft.[9] The course validated the new design methods and textbook and established the syllabus and instructor's guidebook used in later courses worldwide.[22] [23]

Among Conway's contributions was the invention of dimensionless, scalable design rules that greatly simplified chip design and design tools,[24] and invention of a new form of internet-based infrastructure for rapid prototyping and short-run fabrication of large numbers of chip designs.[25] They aimed to address the escalating complexity of chip design, as traditional methods struggled to keep pace with Moore's law.[26] The new infrastructure was institutionalized as the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service (MOSIS) system in 1981. Mead and Conway received Electronics magazine's annual award of achievement in 1981.[27] [28] VLSI researcher Charles Seitz commented that "MOSIS represented the first period since the pioneering work of Eckert and Mauchley on the ENIAC in the late 1940s that universities and small companies had access to state-of-the-art digital technology."[25]

The impact and research methods underlying the development of the Mead–Conway VLSI design methodology and the MOSIS prototype are detailed in a 1981 Xerox report,[29] the Euromicro Journal,[30] and several historical overviews of computing.[25] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] Mead-Conway's methods also came under ethnographic study in 1980 by PARC anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who published her interviews with Conway in 2021.[38] [39]

In 1983, Conway left Xerox to join DARPA, where she was a key architect of the United States Department of Defense's Strategic Computing Initiative.[40] [41] In a contemporary USA Today article about Conway's joining DARPA, Mark Stefik, a Xerox scientist who worked with her, said "Lynn would like to live five lives in the course of one life".[42] Douglas Fairbairn, a former Xerox associate, said "She figures out a way so that everybody wins."[42] In The Net Effect, sociologist Thomas Streeter wrote that Conway’s decision to join DARPA reflected her rejection of antiwar liberalism.[43]

Conway joined the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor of electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of engineering. There, she specialized in visual communications and designing control systems for hybrid internet and broadband-cable user interfaces. She retired from active teaching and research in 1998 as professor emerita at Michigan.[44] [45]

Computer science legacy

The Mead–Conway VLSI chip design revolution quickly spread through research universities and the computing industry during the 1980s. It fostered the growth of the electronic design automation industry, established the foundry model for chip design and manufacturing, and spurred a wave of influential technology startups throughout the 1980s and 1990s.[6] [46] [47] [48] [49]

In the fall of 2012, the IEEE published a special issue of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine devoted to Conway's career,[50] [51] including a career memoir by Conway[10] and peer commentaries by Chuck House,[52] former Director of Engineering at HP, Carlo Séquin,[53] and Kenneth L Shepard.[54] James F. Gibbons stated in his tribute that Conway, from his perspective, "was the singular force behind the entire 'foundry' development that emerged."[55] Subsequently the scope of Conway's contributions gained wider retrospective attention. "Since I didn't

  1. LookLikeanEngineer
, few people caught on to what I was really doing back in the 70s and 80s," Conway later said.

In 2020, National Academy of Engineering President John L. Anderson stated that "Lynn Conway is not only a revolutionary pioneer in the design of VLSI systems ... But just as important, Lynn has been very brave in telling her own story, and her perseverance has been a reminder to society that it should not be blind to the innovations of women, people of color, or others who don't fit long outdated – but unfortunately, persistent – perceptions of what an engineer looks like."

Conway named the phenomenon of women and people of color being overlooked in historical accounts of innovations "the Conway Effect."[56] She described it in the IEEE Computer Society's Computer magazine: "This is seldom deliberate—rather, it's a result of the accumulation of advantage by those who are expected to innovate."

In 2023, Lynn Conway collaborated with Jim Boulton to create Lines in the Sand,[57] a short comic book that tells the story of the invention VLSI. The launch event[58] took place at the Centre for Computing History on November 23, 2023.

Transgender activism

When nearing retirement, Conway learned that the story of her early work at IBM might soon be revealed through the investigations of Mark Smotherman that were being prepared for a 2001 publication.[6] She began coming out in 1999 to friends and colleagues about her gender transition,[59] [60] [61] using her website to tell her story.[5] Her life story was then more widely reported in 2000 in profiles in Scientific American[7] and the Los Angeles Times.[9] In a later Forbes interview, Conway commented "From the 1970s to 1999 I was recognized as breaking the gender barrier in the computer science field as a woman, but in 2000 it became the transgender barrier I was breaking."

After sharing her story publicly, Conway began working in transgender activism to raise awareness, protect and expand trans rights, and promote understanding of gender identity and the process of gender transition.[62] She provided assistance to numerous other transgender women and maintained a website providing medical resources and emotional advice.[63] She maintained a website titled "Transsexual Women's Successes" to, in her words, "provide role models for individuals who are facing gender transition."[64] Her website also provided news related to transgender issues and information on gender-affirming surgery and academic inquiries into the prevalence of transsexualism[65]

Notes and References

  1. News: Lynn Conway, Computing Pioneer and Transgender Advocate, Dies at 86 . The New York Times . Trip Gabriel . June 15, 2024.
  2. Book: Saari . Peggy . Scientists: A-F . Allison . Stephen . Ellavich . Marie C. . 1996 . U-X-L . 978-0-7876-0960-3 . en.
  3. Book: Lee . John A. N. . International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers . 1995 . Fitzroy Dearborn . 1-884964-47-8 .
  4. Web site: Computer Pioneers - Lynn Conway . IEEE Computer Society . IEEE . November 10, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141110182854/http://computer.org/computer-pioneers/conway.html . November 10, 2014 . dead.
  5. Web site: Conway . Lynn . Lynn Conway's Retrospective PART I: CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION . lynnconway.com . July 9, 2008 . March 15, 2004 . February 17, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230217150938/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Retrospective1.html . live .
  6. Web site: IBM Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) – 1961–1969 . Mark . Smotherman . July 8, 2008 . October 11, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081011051841/http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/acs.html . live .
  7. Web site: Wallich . Paul . Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit . . https://web.archive.org/web/20131004233454/http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=D1E5F66F-2A45-4BF9-BE9E-001B49F7F67 . 4 October 2013 . December 2000 . usurped.
  8. Dianne Lynch, "The Secret Behind 'Project Y': One Woman's Success Story — 'What Works, Works' ", ABCNews.com, November 29, 2001.
  9. Hiltzik, Michael A. (November 19, 2000.) "Through the Gender Labyrinth." . Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times Magazine, page 1. (Free reprint . Retrieved on September 19, 2007.)
  10. Conway . Lynn . 2012 . Reminiscences of the VLSI revolution: How a series of failures triggered a paradigm shift in digital design . IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine . IEEE . 4 . 4 . 8–31 . 1943-0582 . 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215752 . 9286356 . February 17, 2023 . January 18, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230118184820/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/VLSI/Lynn_Conway_VLSI_Reminiscences.pdf . live .
  11. News: Alicandri . Jeremy . IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later . November 21, 2020 . Forbes . November 18, 2020 . April 13, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210413101530/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-firing-computer-pioneer/?sh=25cf659667d5 . live .
  12. Web site: IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later . Jeremy . Alicandri . Forbes . November 21, 2020 . November 21, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201121030013/https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-firing-computer-pioneer/ . live .
  13. Web site: Lynn Conway's Retrospective PART III: Starting Over . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . May 12, 1960 . December 5, 2013 . November 26, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141126093647/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Retrospective3.html . live .
  14. Adele J. . Goldberg . September 1980 . About This Issue... . . 12 . 3 . 257–258 . 10.1145/356819.356820 . 27661653 . 0360-0300 . free . May 8, 2016 . January 8, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160108004413/http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=conway+lsi-systems-group&btnG=Search . live .
  15. Book: Rob . Walker . Nancy . Tersini . Silicon Destiny: The Story of Application Specific Integrated Circuits and LSI Logic Corporation . Walker Research Associates . 1992 . 0-9632654-0-7.
  16. Web site: Sense of Wonder Motivates VLSI Chip Revolutionary, Lynn Conway . American Association for the Advancement of Science . en . March 20, 2020 . March 20, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320054236/https://www.aaas.org/sense-wonder-motivates-vlsi-chip-revolutionary-lynn-conway . live .
  17. Web site: Conway . Lynn . December 31, 2012 . The 'Sutherland Letter' of 1976 . August 26, 2020 . July 13, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200713193817/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/BackgroundContext/Sutherland_Letter.html . live .
  18. Web site: Impact of the Mead-Conway VLSI Design Methodology and of the MOSIS Service . ai.eecs.umich.edu . March 13, 2020 . February 18, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200218162433/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Impact/Impact.html . live .
  19. Web site: Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit . Wallich . Paul . Scientific American . December 2000 . April 24, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061028031127/http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=D1E5F66F-2A45-4BF9-BE9E-001B49F7F67 . October 28, 2006.
  20. Web site: Unsung innovators: Lynn Conway and Carver Mead: They literally wrote the book on chip design . Smith . Gina . December 3, 2007 . Computerworld . April 24, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081226130335/http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9046420 . December 26, 2008.
  21. Book: Miller, Chris . Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology . Scribner . 2022 . 136–137, 140, 166, 378.
  22. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/InstGuide.pdf The MIT'78 VLSI System Design Course: A Guidebook for the Instructor of VLSI System Design
  23. Paul Penfield "The VLSI Revolution at MIT" by Paul Penfield 2014 MIT EECS Connector, Spring 2014, pp. 11–13.
  24. Book: Design Rules: The Power of Modularity . Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark . 2000 . MIT Press . 0-262-02466-7.
  25. National Research Council (1999), Funding a Revolution: Government Support for Computing Research, National Academy Press (excerpt)
  26. Web site: Lynn Conway . Gebbie Lab . April 24, 2024 . January 29, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240425001048/https://interfaces.che.wisc.edu/lynn-conway/ . April 25, 2024.
  27. Web site: Impact of the Mead-Conway VLSI Design Methodology and of the MOSIS Service . ai.eecs.umich.edu . March 22, 2020 . February 18, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200218162433/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Impact/Impact.html . live .
  28. "The MOSIS Service – More than 50,000 designs in 25 years of operation", http://www.mosis.com/, 2008
  29. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.pdf THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies
  30. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv-MM-TEJ.pdf THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies
  31. http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=5040 Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology
  32. Web site: Figure II.13: Technological Developments in Computing", in Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology, National Academy Press, Washington, DC 1995, page 75. . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . May 7, 1999 . December 5, 2013 . February 18, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200218162433/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Impact/Impact.html#Figure.II.13 . live .
  33. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/4948.html Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure
  34. Web site: Figure 1.2: Government-sponsored computing research and development stimulates creation of innovative ideas and industries", in Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure, National Academy Press, 1995, page 20. . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . May 7, 1999 . December 5, 2013 . February 18, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200218162433/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Impact/Impact.html#Figure.1.2 . live .
  35. Book: Feinstein, Jonathan S. . Creativity in Large-Scale Contexts . Stanford University Press . 2023 . 196–199, 266–270, 299–304.
  36. The VLSI Archive, by Lynn Conway, Electronic Design News, June 3, 2009.
  37. Web site: VLSI Archive: An online archive of documents and artifacts from the Mead-Conway VLSI design revolution . live . December 5, 2013 . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . https://web.archive.org/web/20071208161339/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.html . December 8, 2007.
  38. Web site: Suchman . Lucy . March 1, 2021 . A Sociotechnical Exchange, Redux . live . Backchannels Reflections . https://web.archive.org/web/20210304182920/https://www.4sonline.org/a-sociotechnical-exchange-redux/ . March 4, 2021.
  39. Conway . Lynn . Suchman . Lucy . February 28, 2021 . Conway-Suchman conversation . Conway Suchman Conversation . April 25, 2021 . April 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210425144931/https://conwaysuchman-conv.pubpub.org/pub/93808pq4/release/4 . live .
  40. Kilbane . Doris . October 20, 2003 . Lynn Conway: A Trailblazer On Professional, Personal Levels . Products > News . . February 17, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080608190427/http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=5833 . June 8, 2008 . live.
  41. Dwight B. Davis "Assessing the Stragetic Computing Initiative," by Dwight B. Davis High Technology, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1985.
  42. Web site: Hi-tech researcher chips in to develop smart computer . Michelle . Osborn . USA Today . June 7, 1983 . April 24, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140420032946/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/DARPA/USA_Today_6-07-83.pdf . April 20, 2014.
  43. http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/Net_Effect/ "The Net Effect, Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet"
  44. Web site: Lynn Conway awarded Emerita status at the University of Michigan . December 31, 1998 . University of Michigan . April 24, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20031205144225/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/Emerita.html . December 5, 2003.
  45. Web site: Moore . Nicole Casal . June 11, 2024 . The legacy of Lynn Conway, chip design pioneer and transgender-rights advocate . June 12, 2024 . Michigan Engineering News . en-US.
  46. Web site: Lynn Conway: 2009 Computer Pioneer Award Recipient . IEEE Computer Society . January 20, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150103172210/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/conway . January 3, 2015 . dead.
  47. Lynn Conway receives 2009 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award . July 30, 2010 . IEEE Computer Society . YouTube . June 8, 2024 . May 8, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210508110318/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Txvjia3p0 . live .
  48. Web site: CHM Events: IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project of the 1960's . Computer History Museum . https://web.archive.org/web/20100420225250/http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1264112339 . February 18, 2010 . April 20, 2010 . en . live.
  49. Smotherman . Mark . Spicer . Dag . IBM's single-processor supercomputer efforts . . December 2010 . 53 . 12 . 28–30 . 10.1145/1859204.1859216 . June 7, 2024 . June 7, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240607190134/https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/ibms-single-processor-supercomputer-efforts/ . live .
  50. Lanzerotti . Mary . 2012 . Editor's Note . IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine . IEEE . 4 . 1 . 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2214274 . June 22, 2013 . November 29, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151129211529/http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/about/articles/2013/VLSI_Reminiscences.pdf . live .
  51. http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/about/articles/2013/Conway_VLSI_memoir.html "Solid-State Circuits Publishes Special Issue with Lynn Conway's Memoir of the VLSI Revolution"
  52. House . Chuck . 2012 . A Paradigm Shift Was Happening All Around Us . IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine . IEEE . 4 . 4 . 32–35 . 1943-0582 . 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215759 . 8738682 . February 17, 2023 . May 8, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230508141729/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/VLSI/Commentaries/A_Paradigm_Shift_Was_Happening_by_Chuck_House.pdf . live .
  53. Sequin . Carlo . 2012 . Witnessing the Birth of VLSI Design . IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine . IEEE . 4 . 4 . 36–39 . 1943-0582 . 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215758 . 20280958 . June 24, 2013 . November 5, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131105061230/http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/PAPERS/2012_SSCM_VLSI.pdf . live .
  54. Shepard . Ken . 2012 . "Covering": How We Missed the Inside-Story of the VLSI Revolution . IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine . IEEE . 4 . 4 . 40–42 . 1943-0582 . 10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215757 . 25240158 . February 17, 2023 . March 25, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230325220825/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Memoirs/VLSI/Commentaries/Covering_by_Ken_Shepard.pdf . live .
  55. Web site: ACM News . October 12, 2018 . Lynn Conway and the VLSI Revolution in Microchip Design . Communications of the ACM . August 8, 2020 . April 18, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210418014046/https://cacm.acm.org/news/231829-lynn-conway-and-the-vlsi-revolution-in-microchip-design/fulltext . live .
  56. Web site: CSDL IEEE Computer Society . June 12, 2024 . www.computer.org . December 8, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208031250/https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2018/10/mco2018100066/17D45WXIkDI . live .
  57. Book: Boulton, Jim . Lines in the Sand, The Lynn Conway Story (Unsung Heroes of the Information Age) . Unsung Heroes . 2024 . February 21, 2024 . B0CW1LNGFD.
  58. Lynn Conway – If you want to change the future, start living as if you're already there . April 26, 2024 . The Centre for Computing History . June 6, 2024 . YouTube . June 6, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240606130617/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2jAZmnIqU . live .
  59. http://www.logoonline.com/shows/dyn/beautiful_daughters/personality.jhtml?personalityId=6829 "Beautiful Daughters Cast: Lynn Conway"
  60. http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=5836&pg=3 "Class Notes: 2002 Inductees: Here's how many of our 2002 Hall Of Famers enjoy their leisure time and how they still give back to society"
  61. http://www.prism-magazine.org/oct11/feature_03.cfm "Secrets Are Out: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender engineers are no longer willing to hide their true selves"
  62. Web site: Lynn Conway's homepage . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . February 17, 2023 . February 13, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230213120909/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/conway.html . live .
  63. Web site: Status of translations of Lynn's webpages, 12-10-13 . December 10, 2013 . December 23, 2013 . December 6, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131206065239/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/conway-Translation%20status.htm . live .
  64. Web site: Transsexual Women's Successes . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . February 17, 2023 . February 13, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230213102417/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TSsuccesses.html . live .
  65. Web site: "Profile: Lynn Conway," Human Rights Campaign (HRC) website . HRC . December 5, 2013 . November 3, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131103234020/http://www.hrc.org/issues/3469.htm . dead.
  66. Web site: Biographies of famous LGBT people: Science: Professor Lynn Conway, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month website . Lgbthistorymonth.org.uk . December 5, 2013 . April 6, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140406095129/http://www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/history/lynnconway.htm . dead.
  67. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Media/HP/HP.html "Embracing Diversity – HP employees in Fort Collins, Colorado, welcome Dr. Lynn Conway"
  68. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Media/ColoradoanArticle/HP-CSU-lynncon.html "Computer pioneer speaks from the heart about diversity: Transsexual talks at HP, CSU"
  69. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Media/Advocate/Advocate.html "Chipping Away at Prejudice"
  70. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Media/Intel/iglobe.htm "What's pride got to do with it?"
  71. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Media/PersonnelToday/PersonnelToday_com%20-%20Why%20HR%20should%20wake%20up%20to%20the%20needs%20of%20transsexual%20employees.htm "Why HR should wake up to the needs of transsexual employees"
  72. Web site: Professor Lynn Conway, Guest at Out & Equal . April 10, 2018 . Ai.eecs.umich.edu . October 9, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181009193229/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/O%26E/Raytheon/Raytheon%20Adds%20GI%26E.html . live .
  73. News: Dr. Kenneth Zucker's War on Transgenders . Queerty . February 6, 2009 . May 17, 2009 . April 9, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090409152513/http://www.queerty.com/dr-kenneth-zuckers-war-on-transgenders-20090206/ . live .
  74. News: Chagmion . Antoine . Chagmion Antoine . Transgender Crusader – A professor at the University of Michigan is taking on the psychiatric community's ideas about transgendered people and mental illness . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/JBRCo1KDX_o . December 21, 2021 . live . CBS News / YouTube . March 6, 2009.
  75. News: Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege. Benedict . Carey . New York Times . August 21, 2007. February 22, 2017. April 2, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402121732/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/health/psychology/21gender.html?ei=5124&en=0c11623b4c191f82&ex=1345348800&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=all . live .
  76. Dreger . A. D. . 2008 . The controversy surrounding The man who would be queen: A case history of the politics of science, identity, and sex in the Internet age . Archives of Sexual Behavior . 37 . 3 . 366–421 . 3170124 . 18431641 . 10.1007/s10508-007-9301-1.
  77. Web site: Conway . Lynn . July 16, 2003 . Shockingly defamatory official publicity by the US National Academies for Bailey's book . lynnconway.com . December 4, 2020 . December 8, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208044610/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/ShockingPublicity.html . live .
  78. Web site: Dreger . Alice . March 10, 2015 . Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar's Search for Justice . December 31, 2020 . January 27, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210127015827/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316214/galileos-middle-finger-by-alice-dreger/ . live .
  79. Web site: Dreger's Defense of J. Michael Bailey: The Peer Commentary Papers Tear It Apart . June 18, 2008 . Conway . Lynn . February 17, 2023 . February 17, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230217151003/https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Dreger/ASB%20paper/PeerCommentaries/Peer_Papers_Critical_of_Dreger.html . live .
  80. http://www.deepstealth.com/vday/ VDay LA 2004 Commemorative Page
  81. http://www.logoonline.com/shows/dyn/beautiful_daughters/series.jhtml "Beautiful Daughters"
  82. Web site: Trans Hero: Lynn Conway . Stonewall 40: Trans Heroes . International Court System . 2009 . June 14, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090615170758/http://www.impcourt.org/Trans40/LynnConway.htm . June 15, 2009 . dead .
  83. Web site: June 10, 2009 . National Gay and Lesbian Task Force . Recognizing Outstanding Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Individuals in the Struggle for LGBT Equality . June 14, 2009 . September 30, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090930181348/http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/10-17 . dead.
  84. Web site: Leadership and the Value of Exceptional Allies . Dana . Beyer . Huffington Post . January 8, 2014 . January 17, 2014 . March 31, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170331063049/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-beyer/leadership-and-the-value-of-exceptional-allies_b_4543460.html . live .
  85. Web site: IEEE at a Glace . IEEE . January 17, 2014 . January 22, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140122054024/http://www.ieee.org/about/today/at_a_glance.html . live .
  86. Web site: IEEE Code of Ethics . IEEE . January 17, 2014 . July 23, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170723171026/http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html . live .
  87. Web site: The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Adopts LGBT-Inclusive Code of Ethics . Maureen . McCarty . January 13, 2014 . HRC . January 17, 2014 . February 1, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201162715/http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/the-institute-of-electrical-and-electronic-engineers-adopts-lgbt-inclusive . dead.
  88. 21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture . Time . May 29, 2014 . June 4, 2014 . August 5, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160805093258/http://time.com/130734/transgender-celebrities-actors-athletes-in-america/ . live .
  89. Web site: The Trans 100. The Trans 100. June 11, 2024. June 6, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240606202439/https://www.thetrans100.com/. live.
  90. Web site: Taylor . Evan . February 4, 2020 . Trans Activism Oral History Project – Lynn Conway Full Interview . The ArQuives . June 13, 2023 . June 13, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230613180020/https://vimeo.com/501793564 . live .
  91. Forman, Ross (September 18, 2013) "Transgender pioneer reflects on sports past" . Windy City Times.
  92. Web site: 2002 . A Wedding Trip to Mackinac Island . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20020928000028/http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/MackinacIsland/MackinacIsland.html . September 28, 2002.
  93. Nicole Casal Moore,"Life, Engineered: How Lynn Conway reinvented her world and ours The Michigan Engineer, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Fall 2014, pp. 42–49.
  94. Marcin Szczepanski and Evan Dougherty,"A Place to Be Wild," Michigan Engineering, October 8, 2014.
  95. Web site: Hiltzik . Michael . June 11, 2024 . Lynn Conway, leading computer scientist and transgender pioneer, dies at 85 . June 12, 2024 . . June 12, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240612020450/https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-06-11/lynn-conway-leading-computer-scientist-and-transgender-pioneer-dies-at-85 . live .
  96. Web site: Moore . Nicole Casal . June 11, 2024 . The legacy of Lynn Conway, chip design pioneer and transgender-rights advocate . June 11, 2024 . Michigan Engineering.
  97. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/Electronics/ElectAchiev.html "The 1981 Achievement Award – Lynn Conway, Carver Mead"
  98. Web site: Penn Engineering: The Harold Pender Award . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080705051810/http://www.seas.upenn.edu/pubs/pender-award.html . July 5, 2008.
  99. Web site: IEEE EAB Major Educational Innovation Award, 1984 . Ieee.org . December 5, 2013 . February 12, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080212071402/http://www.ieee.org/web/education/awards/past_recipients.html . dead .
  100. Web site: Services Update . Ieee.org . April 10, 2018 . July 6, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080706034937/http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/fellows/Alphabetical/cfellows.html . dead .
  101. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/FranklinInstitute/PhysToday/PhysToday7-85.pdf "Franklin Institute honors eight physicists"
  102. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/Mementos_of_Lynn's_awards.html#SecDef "Secretary of Defense Meritorious Achievement Award, May 1985"
  103. http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/MembersSec?OpenForm&05,M,1 NAE Member Directory, Section 05.
  104. Web site: Society of Women Engineers: Achievement Award Winners. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120216084307/http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=657&Itemid=42 . February 16, 2012.
  105. http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/01/1996-01-31-conway-named-to-usaf-academy-board-of-visitors.html President Clinton Names Lynn Conway to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors"
  106. Web site: 100 years of engineering excellence . August 17, 2008 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20020615003757/http://lor.trincoll.edu/info/pub_college/reporter/winter98/engineer.htm . June 15, 2002., Trinity Reporter, Trinity College, Hartford, CN, Winter 98.
  107. https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Awards/ElectronicDesign/ED%20Hall%20of%20Fame%202002.pdf "Electronic Design Hall of Fame – 2002 Inductees"
  108. http://www.noglstp.org/2005awards.html "NOGLSTP to Honor Aberson, Conway, and Raytheon at Awards Ceremony in February"
  109. Web site: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Members of the Corporation . Draper.com . December 5, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131210085427/http://www.draper.com/members.html . December 10, 2013 . dead.
  110. Web site: "Lynn Conway: 2014 Fellow", Computer History Museum, 2014 Fellow Awards . Computerhistory.org . April 10, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160703014527/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Lynn,Conway/ . July 3, 2016 . dead.
  111. http://www.iit.edu/news/iittoday/?p=31501 "Illinois Institute of Technology, ITT Commencement"
  112. Web site: Technology innovator to headline Steinmetz Memorial Lecture . Union.edu . April 10, 2018 . April 12, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180412000947/https://www.union.edu/news/stories/2015/04/prominent-woman-engineer-to-headline-steinmetz-memorial-lecture.php . live .
  113. Web site: Lynn Conway Receives 2015 IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal. December 5, 2014.
  114. News: Magill Lecture: Visionary Engineer Lynn Conway BS'62, MS'63 Heralds Dawn of the Techno-Social Age . Adams . Jesse . Columbia University . April 7, 2016 . July 10, 2016 . December 31, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171231104428/http://engineering.columbia.edu/visionary-engineer-lynn-conway-bs%E2%80%9962-ms%E2%80%9963-heralds-dawn-techno-social-age . live .
  115. https://www.uvic.ca/home/about/campus-news/2016+nov-2016-honorary-degree-recipients+media-release?ticket=ST-1137198-ZQ5Ilc0GxZeV7Eye9oPi-jvm1"University of Victoria News, Leaders in computing, athletics, telecommunications and public service receive honorary degrees"
  116. Web site: Lynn Conway: Honorary Doctor of Engineering . University of Victoria . November 9, 2016 . March 8, 2018 . November 20, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161120093638/http://www.uvic.ca/research/transchair/assets/images/misc/conway_event_poster.jpg . live .
  117. Web site: Lynn Conway. AAAS . Aaas.org . April 10, 2018 . March 7, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180307214436/https://www.aaas.org/fellow/conway-lynn . dead.
  118. Web site: 2016 Fellow". AAAS . Aaas.org . April 10, 2018 . July 20, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180720052131/https://www.aaas.org/2016-fellows . live .
  119. Web site: O'Hara, Delia (28 August 2017). "Sense of Wonder Motivates VLSI Chip Revolutionary, Lynn Conway". AAAS . Aaas.org . April 10, 2018 . March 7, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180307214856/https://www.aaas.org/blog/member-spotlight/sense-wonder-motivates-vlsi-chip-revolutionary-lynn-conway . live .
  120. Web site: Member Spotlight. "Lynn Conway". AAAS . Aaas.org . April 10, 2018 . March 7, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180307214804/https://www.aaas.org/taxonomy/term/3979/all/feed?page=3&AMCV_242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg_=793872103%257CMCIDTS%257C16834%257CMCMID%257C14052391524514714681898153359099533420%257CMCAID%257CNONE . dead.
  121. Web site: Zach . Robertson . October 18, 2018 . Computing pioneer to receive honorary U-M doctorate . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190615181704/https://news.engin.umich.edu/2018/10/computing-pioneer-to-receive-honorary-um-doctor-of-science-degree/ . June 15, 2019 . Michigan Engineering News.
  122. Web site: May 16, 2019 . 2019 NCWIT Summit: Lynn Conway – Pioneer Award Ceremony . Nashville, TN . December 31, 2020 . January 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210126021733/https://www.ncwit.org/video/2019-ncwit-summit-lynn-conway-pioneer-award-ceremony . live .
  123. Web site: January 6, 2023 . Lynn Conway, Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) . . January 21, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230121190231/https://www.invent.org/inductees/lynn-conway . live .
  124. Princeton awards five honorary degrees. (May 30, 2023). Princeton University. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2023/05/30/princeton-awards-five-honorary-degrees
  125. Web site: April 19, 2024 . 5 Honorary Degrees to Be Presented at 2024 Commencement . May 26, 2024 . May 28, 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240528224858/https://news.syr.edu/blog/2024/04/19/5-honorary-degrees-to-be-presented-at-2024-commencement . live .
  126. Olyslager F, Conway L (2008). Transseksualiteit komt vaker voor dan u denkt [Transsexualism is more common than you think.] Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, Vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 39–51, 2008. (abstract in English) and transgender and transsexual issues in general.[65] [66]

    She also advocated for equal opportunities and employment protections for transgender people in high-technology industry,[67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] and for elimination of the pathologization of transgender people by the psychiatric community.[73] [74]

    Conway was a critic of Blanchard's transsexualism typology.[75] Along with Andrea James and Deirdre McCloskey, she was a key person in the campaign against J. Michael Bailey's book about the theory, The Man Who Would Be Queen.[76] [77] Conway and McCloskey accused Bailey of conducting research on human subjects without their knowledge, sending letters to Northwestern University about this alleged misconduct.

    Alice Dreger, in her book Galileo's Middle Finger, criticized Conway for filing a lawsuit against Bailey. Conway alleged Bailey lacked a clinical psychologist license when he wrote letters in support of a young trans woman seeking to transition. Dreger countered that Bailey did not need a license as he provided his services without compensation. Dreger noted that Bailey was transparent in his letters, detailing his brief interactions with the women and his qualifications, which likely explained why Illinois authorities did not act on the complaint.[78] Conway responded, accusing Dreger of misrepresenting the controversy by portraying it as a personal attack on Bailey rather than addressing the broader protest from the trans community.[79]

    Conway was a cast member in the first all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues in Los Angeles in 2004,[80] and appeared in a Logo documentary film about that event entitled Beautiful Daughters.[81]

    In 2009, Conway was named one of the "Stonewall 40 trans heroes" on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots by the International Court System and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.[82] [83]

    In 2013, with support from many tech industry leaders, Conway and Leandra Vicci of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill lobbied the directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for transgender inclusion in the their code of ethics.[84] The code became fully LGBT inclusive in January 2014.[85] [86] [87]

    In 2014, Time Magazine named Conway as one of "21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture".[88]

    In 2015, she was selected for inclusion in "The Trans100"[89] and was interviewed in 2020 for inclusion in the Trans Activism Oral History Project.[90]

    Personal life and death

    Conway married a woman in 1963, and they had two daughters together. Following their divorce in 1968, Conway was denied access to their children.

    In 1987, Conway met her husband Charles "Charlie" Rogers, a professional engineer who shared her interest in the outdoors, including whitewater canoeing and motocross racing.[91] They soon started living together and bought a house with 24acres of meadow, marsh, and woodland in rural Jackson, Michigan in 1994. They were married on August 13, 2002.[92] In 2014, the University of Michigan's The Michigan Engineer alumni magazine documented the connections between Conway's engineering explorations and her personal life.[93] [94]

    Conway died from a heart condition at her home on June 9, 2024, at the age of 86.[95] [96]

    Awards and honors

    Conway received a number of awards and distinctions:

    Selected works

    Patents

    • US . 5046022 . Lynn . Conway . Richard . Volz . Michael . Walker . Teleautonomous System and Method Employing Time/Position Synchrony/Desynchrony . September 3, 1991..
    • US . 5444476 . Lynn . Conway . System and Method for Teleinteraction . August 22, 1995.
    • US . 5652849 . Lynn . Conway . Charles . Cohen . Apparatus and Method for Remote Control Using a Visual Information Stream . July 20, 1997.
    • US . 5719622 . Lynn . Conway . Visual Control Selection of Remote Mechanisms . February 17, 1998.
    • US . 5745782 . Lynn . Conway . Method and System for Organizing and Presenting Audio/Visual Information . April 28, 1998.

    Further reading

    External links

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