Lynn Conway

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).