BY ERIN REED | Tuesday, news broke that transgender woman and computer pioneer Lynn Conway passed away at the age of 86.
Her story is nothing short of remarkable. Conway helped pioneer early supercomputers at IBM but was fired after she transitioned.
She went “stealth” and had to rebuild her career from the ground up, starting as a contract programmer at Xerox with “no experience.” Then, she did it all over again, pioneering VLSI — a groundbreaking technology that allowed for microchips to be made small enough to fit in your pocket, paving the way for smartphones and personal computers.
In 1999, she broke stealth, becoming an outspoken advocate for transgender people. Conway first attempted to transition at MIT in 1957 at 19-years-old.