Lynn Conway is remembered for her breakthroughs that helped shape modern computing and an advocate for the visibility of women in computer science. WEMU’s Ana Longoria has this story for Women’s History Month.
Conway began her career at IBM but was fired after transitioning from male to female. Dan Atkins worked with Conway as a fellow professor at University of Michigan’s School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He says she revolutionized microchip design at Xerox PARC alongside Carver Mead by advancing Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) and making it teachable.
“She committed to produce a curriculum that could be distributed.”
Michael Wellman is UofM’s Lynn A. Conway Collegiate Professor. He says after coming to UofM from Xerox in 1985, Conway kept her transgender identity a secret before she had to out herself to receive recognition for her earlier work.
“Once she did that she sort of went all the way. Claiming her identity as a transwoman but also deciding to tell her story.”
Conway spent the rest of her life advocating for transgender rights and the visibility of women in computer science until she passed away in 2024.
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