Last night I fell asleep with the television still glowing. When I woke up, a familiar score filled the room, Hidden Figures had just begun. I had already seen the movie half a dozen times, including in theaters when it was first released, but I could not resist watching again as I brewed my morning coffee.
As I sat laughing, crying, and smiling through its powerful story, I was reminded why I loved the film so much. It celebrates the brilliance of Black women mathematicians at NASA who, despite systemic racism and sexism, helped launch America into the space age. Their contributions were nearly erased, but the movie resurrected their rightful place in history.
When the credits rolled, I thought about another hidden figure. One not yet celebrated in Hollywood, but just as vital in reshaping the future. Lynn Conway. Like the women at NASA, she was a pioneer whose brilliance changed the trajectory of technology itself, while her identity as a transgender woman almost cost her everything.
This is the story of Lynn Conway’s life: engineer, innovator, educator, and one of the most important transgender women in history.
Early Life: A Gifted Mind Searching for Place
Lynn Conway was born in 1938 in White Plains, New York. From a young age, she displayed an extraordinary talent for mathematics and science. By her teenage years, she was already fascinated by electronics, radios, and the inner workings of machines.
But alongside her intellectual gifts, she carried a heavy secret. She knew she was different. Long before the term “transgender” was widely understood, Conway experienced a deep disconnect between the gender she was assigned at birth and who she truly was inside. In an era when there were no role models, no supportive communities, and little understanding, this knowledge was both isolating and terrifying.
Still, she pursued her academic ambitions. She enrolled at MIT, where she excelled in physics and engineering. However, her struggles with gender identity led to periods of difficulty, and she eventually dropped out. Refusing to give up, Conway rebuilt her path, enrolling at Columbia University and earning degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
Her intellectual brilliance would soon take her into the heart of one of America’s most influential institutions, IBM.
Breaking Ground at IBM and Losing It All
By the 1960s, Conway was working at IBM Research, contributing to a groundbreaking project called ACS (Advanced Computing Systems). Her role in developing dynamic instruction scheduling, a method that allowed computers to run instructions out of order to maximize efficiency, was revolutionary.
To put it simply, this was the early groundwork for modern supercomputing. Every smartphone, laptop, and server farm today still benefits from concepts Conway helped pioneer.
But in the midst of this brilliance, Conway was also navigating her transition. By the late 1960s, she made the decision to live authentically. This was a time when being transgender meant risking everything: employment, family, safety.
In 1968, when Conway informed IBM of her transition, she was abruptly fired. All of her contributions, her patents, her innovations, her potential, were erased from her personnel records. She was effectively cast out, blacklisted from the field she helped shape.
What the women in Hidden Figures faced at NASA, dismissal, erasure, systemic exclusion, Conway also endured. But just as they refused to let the system define their worth, she refused to disappear.
Reinvention: Xerox PARC and the Birth of Modern Computing
After losing everything at IBM, Conway faced homelessness and despair. She was forced to restart her life from scratch, new name, new documents, new beginnings.
Slowly, through persistence and brilliance, she rebuilt her career. She worked on defense projects, then landed at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 1970s.
At PARC, Conway’s work on VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) design would change the world. Alongside Carver Mead, she co-authored the landmark textbook Introduction to VLSI Systems (1979). This text became the standard reference that taught generations of engineers how to design microchips.
Think of the phone in your pocket, the laptop on your desk, the chips powering AI, these all trace back to VLSI principles Conway helped pioneer.
She did not just contribute to computer science, she rewrote its future.
Educator and Advocate: Transforming Universities
In the 1980s, Conway shifted into academia. She joined the University of Michigan as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science. There, she not only advanced research but also mentored countless students, ensuring that her revolutionary design methods spread across the globe.
Her teaching style was direct, passionate, and empowering. Much like Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan in Hidden Figures, Conway’s genius was not just in equations, it was in lifting others to reach their potential.
And yet, outside of her classrooms and conferences, she kept her transgender history hidden. She feared being outed, losing her job, and being forced once again into exile. For decades, she lived quietly, her immense contributions cloaked by necessity.
Coming Out: Visibility and Truth
It was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that Conway began to share her truth publicly. By then, she was retired and no longer feared losing her livelihood. She came out as a transgender woman not just to reclaim her story, but to give hope to others.
She built a website that became one of the earliest and most comprehensive resources for transgender people. Her writings on gender transition, workplace inclusion, and identity were lifelines for countless individuals navigating their own journeys.
In doing so, Conway became not just a pioneer in technology but also in transgender visibility.
Legacy: Honoring a Hidden Figure
Lynn Conway’s legacy is staggering:
- Dynamic instruction scheduling at IBM: A foundation for modern processors.
- VLSI revolution at Xerox PARC: The blueprint for today’s microchips.
- Academic leadership at Michigan: Shaping generations of engineers.
- Transgender advocacy: Offering resources, hope, and visibility.
Her career mirrors the themes of Hidden Figures. Just as NASA’s success was built on the brilliance of women whose names were nearly erased, the digital revolution we take for granted today rests on the work of a transgender woman almost written out of history.
The difference is that Conway eventually reclaimed her name and story, ensuring that history would not forget.
Why Lynn Conway Matters to Trans History
For transgender people, remembering Lynn Conway is about more than honoring an individual. It is about resisting erasure itself.
History has too often silenced us. Our contributions, whether in art, science, or activism, are buried under stigma and prejudice. But Conway’s life proves that transgender people have always been at the forefront of innovation and progress.
When we talk about STEM, we must talk about Conway. When we talk about computer science, we must talk about Conway. When we talk about courage, the kind that risks everything to live authentically, we must talk about Conway.
She reminds us that trans history is not just about survival. It is about brilliance, creativity, and reshaping the world.
Personal Reflection: What Hidden Figures Taught Me
Watching Hidden Figures again reminded me of the importance of storytelling. Without that film, many people would never have known the names Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson.
The same is true for Lynn Conway. Her story has yet to receive the Hollywood spotlight, but it deserves it. She is a hidden figure of trans history, someone whose genius literally powers the devices through which this article is being read.
As I sipped my coffee this morning, I realized that celebrating Conway is about more than remembrance. It is about ensuring that young transgender people know they, too, can change the world, that their brilliance cannot be erased, even when society tries.
The Bottom Line
Lynn Conway passed away in June 2024 at the age of 86. She lived long enough to see her name restored at IBM, her achievements celebrated by the institutions that once cast her out, and her place in history secured.
But our work is not done. Remembering her means teaching her story, writing her into textbooks, and ensuring that every young transgender person who dreams of becoming a scientist, engineer, or innovator knows they belong.
When we honor Lynn Conway, we honor every hidden figure of trans history. We say: you are seen, you are remembered, you are part of the story.
Just as Hidden Figures ends with the recognition of brilliant women once overlooked, let us end here by remembering Lynn Conway, an engineer, a pioneer, a teacher, and a transgender woman who changed the world.
