Lynn Conway, a pioneering computer engineer and transgender advocate, passed away on Sunday at her home in Jackson, Michigan, due to a heart condition. She was confirmed dead by her husband, Charles Rogers.
Born in Westchester County, New York, Conway excelled in her academic pursuits, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University. She joined IBM in the 1960s to work on advanced computing projects. In 1968, she began gender transition and planned reassignment surgery, but IBM dismissed her, citing cultural incompatibility within the firm.
Conway faced significant challenges post-IBM, including brief welfare dependency and estrangement from her daughters. She later joined Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where she co-developed the design rules for very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) with Caltech professor Carver Mead. This innovation became a cornerstone in microprocessor design, influencing the development of chips such as Intel's Pentium.
Her contributions led to a position at DARPA and an eventual professorship at the University of Michigan, where she also served as an associate dean. In 2020, IBM formally apologized to Conway for her dismissal more than five decades earlier.
Conway's legacy extends beyond her technical achievements to her advocacy for the transgender community, offering support and hope through her personal website and public engagements.