‘The bravest person I ever knew’: Transgender computing pioneer Lynn Conway dies at 86
Lynn Conway, the tech pioneer and transgender trailblazer who helped revolutionize the microchip industry, has died at the age of 86.
As a gifted computer architect in California’s Silicon Valley in the 1960s and 70s, Conway co-invented a new method of microchip design that now powers nearly every digital device in our lives, from smartphones to in-car electronics.
Yet, throughout those years, she was also secretly undergoing a gender transition that came with enormous personal and career costs, at a time when trans people were routinely targeted for violence and frequently denied the protection of the law.
