Name: Lynn Conway

Born: January 10, 1938, in White Plains, New York, USA

  • American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, trans woman, and activist for the transgender community.
  • Known for several achievements, including the Mead & Conway revolution in VLSI design, which incubated an emerging electronic design automation industry.
  • While at IBM in the 1960s she invented generalized dynamic instruction handling, an out-of-order execution used by computer processors to improve performance.

Honors and awards

  • Electronics 1981 Award for Achievement.
  • IEEE EAB Major Educational Innovation Award (1984).
  • Fellow of the IEEE, “for contributions to VLSI technology” (1985).
  • Member of the National Academy of Engineering (1989).
  • National Achievement Award, Society of Women Engineers (1990).
  • Presidential Appointment to the United States Air Force Academy Board of Visitors (1996).
  • Electronic Design Hall of Fame (2002).
  • Engineer of the Year, National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientific and Technical Professionals (2005).
  • Named one of the “Stonewall 40 trans heroes” by the ICS and NGLTF (2009).
  • Computer Pioneer Award, IEEE Computer Society (2009).

Websites

  • Lynn Conway at University of Michigan
  • Lynn Conway on Twitter