"There’s always excitement in the air at MIT.  I first breathed that air in September 1955, as a 17 year old freshman moving into East Campus. As door after door of knowledge opened before me, I filled with feelings of empowerment. Those feelings soon extended into everything I did, whether sailing Tech Dinghy's on a blustery day, or rock climbing in the Quincy Quarries, or later-on when exploring New England on a motorcycle.

Starting out in Course-8 (Physics) I did well, making High Honors Dean’s List a number of times (MIT had Dean's Lists back then). But after taking the Course-6 (Electrical Engineering) circuits sequence, I became unsure of my goals. Partly it was the magic of the time. A huge paradigm shift was underway in pulse and digital electronic circuitry, triggered by the WWII tsunami of innovation at MIT’s Rad Lab.  

I’d also been inspired by brilliant young EE instructors like Dudley Buck, who enabled us to visualize at a glance the behaviors of devices and circuitry we were playing around with inside our minds. Now, instead of seeing electronics as infrastructure for doing physics, I glimpsed a vast world for exploration, abstraction and meta-architectural innovation – an insight heightened by MIT’s Norbert Weiner’s visionary writings on “cybernetics.”

I vividly recall Weiner trundling toward me one sunny day as I headed toward the Building 8 entrance. Although he was seemingly lost in thought, I tried to catch his eye, wondering what he saw inside his mind. Whatever it was, he was clearly still ‘doing it’ at an advancing age. A signal also rose above the noise: I was meant to do engineering after all.

But suddenly my whole world came crashing down. Unable to find any help, my intense efforts to resolve my lifelong gender-issues totally failed. Losing all hope of ever becoming a girl and living a meaningful life, I dropped out late in my senior year.  However, MIT had made its mark. I would instantly feel at home upon returning, two decades later . . . "

See full reminiscence at this link:  Lynn Conway, "MIT Reminiscences: Student years to VLSI revolution", lynnconway.com, March 11, 2014.

See also related historical article:  Paul Penfield, "The VLSI Revolution at MIT", 2014 MIT EECS Connector, Spring 2014, pp. 11-13. (PDF of overall issue)

Investigation of the Publication of J. Michael Bailey's Transphobic

Junk-Science Book by the U. S. National Academies, 2003-2006

  

Exposure of Zucker's Trans-Reparatism, 2006-2009

“Drop the Barbie: Ken Zucker's reparatist treatment of gender-variant children”

by Lynn Conway

Zucker’s War on Transgenders

Zucker vs Conway, Round 1000

CBS News: Conway re Zucker

 

 

NWSA Conference-Panel, 2008: “Resisting Transphobia in Academia”

Online report by Lynn Conway

VIDEO; part2

VIDEO; part2; part3

VIDEO; part2

VIDEO; part2

Q&A; part2

 

 

IFGE Conference-Panel, 2009

““Disordered” No More: Challenging Transphobia in Psychology, Academia and Society”

Online report by Lynn Conway

VIDEO	VIDEO	Julia's Book	VIDEO	Kelley's Book	Luncheon

  

  

"Out to Innovate" 2012, 2014

The National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) and Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM) presented “Out to Innovate 2012” at Ohio State University, connecting LGBT STEM students, academics and employers for career-development opportunities.  I participated in a plenary panel at OTI-2012, and two years later I Keynoted OTI-2014 at Georgia Tech. I encourage LGBT STEM professionals to join NOGLSTP and students to join oSTEM.  [Video]

OTI-2012: w Brynn Tannehill                              OTI-2014: Keynote Lecture                                OTI-2014

   

  

  

White House LGBT Reception, June 13, 2013

In 2013 I was invited by the President to attend a White House Reception in celebration of LGBT Pride Month, in acknowledgement of my trans-advocacy work. A wonderful event; the atmosphere was full of joy and hope for the future.  My husband Charlie was my guest and as you can imagine this was a very special experience for us. The following month I published reflections on the event, entitled "The Many Shades of 'Out'."

 
Advocating for full LBGT inclusion in IEEE's Code of Ethics
September 3, 2013 – January 8, 2014
 
          

  

2015: The Paradigm Shifts, Upending Conversion-Therapy on Trans Children and Teens.

Zucker is Formally Investigated: He's Fired and his CAMH Gender Clinic is Closed!

       

Career Memoirs

Quoem re Career Memoirs:

“e^iπ + 1 = 0”  – Leonhard Euler

"Mathematics is an experimental science, and definitions

do not come first, but later on" – Oliver Heaviside

“Imagination is more important than knowledge . . .” – Albert Einstein

“Choose a problem that "irrationally grips you by the imagination,

else nothing remarkable can be expected to happen." – Arthur T. Winfree 

“If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not recognize it when it arrives” – Heraclitus

"Go off and do something wonderful." – Robert (Bob) Noyce

“It is the story that matters not just the ending.” – Paul Lockhart

"Rumor was that somebody named Conway had gone off the reservation,

slipped up the river into Cambodia, and was spreading unsound methods" – Lynn Conway

"If MPC79 didn’t work my name would be Kurtz’d."  – Lynn Conway

Lynn and her husband Charlie, 2010

[click photo for higher-res version (more, more, more, more)]

Introduction:

During the early 2010's, I began sketching reflections on my experiences in engineering. I'd learned many lessons during my work at IBM-ACS in the 1960's and the 'Mead-Conway' VLSI revolution in the 1970's.  I hoped to illuminate those experiences in memoirs before time ran out, believing lessons-learned back then might prove useful to young engineers in the future. 

Times had also changed enough to seriously begin this work. The widespread internet-based trans-advocacy of the 00's had had great impact: The pronouncements of leading American psychiatrists on gender variance were exposed as 'unsound'.  Laws changed, employment opportunities opened up, and the political landscape brightened. Transpeople emerged from the shadows, taking their rightful places in society. My long-ago transition was no longer the 'elephant in the room', blocking people from seeing the career-story looming beyond. It was time to return to my intellectual roots in science, mathematics and engineering, time to share what I can about such things.

Lynn's IBM-ACS Archive and Reminiscences:

I was hired by IBM Research right out of graduate school and soon joined what would become the IBM Advanced Computing Systems (a pioneering supercomputer project),  just as it was forming in 1965. It was a golden era in computer research, a time when fundamental breakthroughs were being made across a wide front.

The well-distilled and highly codified results of that and subsequent work, as contained in today’s modern textbooks, give no clue as to how those breakthroughs ‘came to be’. Lost in those texts is all the excitement, the challenge, the confusion, the camaraderie, the chaos and the fun – the feeling of what it was really like to be there, at the frontier, at that time. In this, my first foray into memoir writing, I hoped to bring some of that thrill back to life. This effort was also essential preparation for writing the follow-on VLSI memoir. The reason was that I'd gained many valuable scientific and engineering insights while at ACS, and had drawn heavily upon those insights during my later VLSI research.

Many questions also lingered about what had happened at ACS.  I wondered what ‘inside-explanation’ had been used within IBM to rationalize the project's cancellation in 1968. Did the managers who killed the project not realize that my "dynamic instruction scheduling" (DIS) invention had been included in, and had greatly empowered, the machine design? Then too, why did IBM fail to patent DIS and fail to exploit it in their later computers? Was it possible that several rather influential ACS researchers did not understand what DIS was? Much less how it worked, or who had invented it? If so, how could that be? And why was I fired so suddenly, once IBM’s Corporate Executive Committee (i.e., IBM's President and CEO T. J. Watson, Jr.) learned about my upcoming gender transition? That firing seemed impulsively executed, as if in hot-anger. What on earth was that all about?

I launched an investigation in early 2011 to finally begin answering those questions and more. I was fortunate to have access to extensive ACS historical files compiled by Mark Smotherman of Clemson University, along with my own archive of original ACS documents, plus valuable evidence that had emerged onto the internet over the years. My ACS colleague Brian Randell also had many questions about the project, which had been cancelled just as he had predicted early-on in the project. Collaborating closely via Skype, we happened upon and shared lots of additional evidence, and began making sense out of it all. The findings so far are fascinating indeed, as you’ll discover in the resulting memoir. Among other things, we uncovered that T. J. Watson, Jr. was a rabid homophobe.

While that work was underway, I was invited by John Lloyd to contribute a chapter to a Festschrift honoring Brian on his 75th birthday. It was published in November 2011. In addition to my ACS memoir, the Festschrift contained fascinating chapters by many prominent computer scientists, including Gordon Bell, Peter Denning, Tony Hoare, Dave Parnas and many more:

Lynn Conway, “IBM-ACS: Reminiscences and Lessons Learned from a 1960’s Supercomputer Project”. A chapter in: C. B. Jones, J. L. Lloyd, (Eds.), Dependable and Historic Computing: Essays Dedicated to Brian Randell on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2011, pp.185–224.

The VLSI Archive:

As we reflect on the past with friends and family, we often use photo albums to share our memories – memories that bind us together and reveal how we got to where we are. But what about our careers? Although the results of our work may linger, mementos of adventures along the way are often lost in the rush of events. Only too late do we realize what we 'should have saved'.

It was different for the VLSI revolution in microelectronics; perhaps it was the exciting visual artifacts, or the shared-sense of breaking new ground. Whatever the reason, many participants saved old treasures from those years (1976-1980) – research notes, prototype silicon chips and chip photos, even huge color check plots – and stored them away for decades. During 2008-2010, members of the original VLSI research team, along with colleagues in academia and industry, began gathering up, scanning and photographing such artifacts – and then posting them online. The resulting VLSI Archive (more, more) helped bring those exciting days back to life. That mass of primary historical evidence also provided a great starting-point for a memoir, with the online VLSI Archive Spreadsheet enabling easy group-access to its wide array of contents. This large archive of original artifacts and documents from the VLSI revolution was pivotal in enabling me to begin writing my VLSI Reminiscences in 2011-12.

Lynn's VLSI Reminiscences:

In 2010, Dave Hodges, the Daniel M. Tellep Distinguished Professor of Engineering Emeritus at U. C. Berkeley, graciously invited me to write a memoir about the VLSI revolution for a special-issue of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine (SSCM). Although many myths had arisen about the 'Mead-Conway' work, this was the first time in thirty years that any of my peers had asked me to explain what had happened back then. It was a nice coincidence in timing, for I’d already begun drafting some sketches about the work.

However there was a problem: The VLSI work had drawn heavily on key scientific and engineering insights I’d gained while at IBM-ACS. I felt a need to document those foundational experiences before immersing myself in writing about VLSI. Many questions also lingered about what had really happened at ACS, questions that needed answering before writing about later work. Thus it was that I began writing an ACS memoir in early 2011. This involved some rather interesting detective work, and along the way I stumbled onto many answers. The resulting ACS memoir was published in the fall of 2011 (see below).

I then shifted to writing about the VLSI revolution, building on the mass of original evidence contained in the VLSI Archive, and interacting with and getting feedback from many VLSI vets. The resulting memoir was published in the IEEE-SSCM in December 2012, along with insightful commentaries contributed by Chuck House, former Director of Engineering at HP, Carlo Séquin, Professor of EECS at U.C. Berkeley, and Ken Shepard, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. The memoir and commentaries are posted at the following links [those in the VLSI archive include embedded links]:

IEEE Solid State Circuits Magazine, VOL. 4, NO. 4, FALL 2012: Front Cover; Table of Contents; Society Listing; Contributors; Editor's Note, by Mary Lanzerotti; (PDF 4mb); UM EECS Department Posting.

Lynn Conway, “Reminiscences of the VLSI Revolution: How a series of failures triggered a paradigm shift in digital design” (SSCM, more, references, timeline)

Chuck House, “A Paradigm Shift Was Happening All Around Us” (SSCM)

Carlo Sequin,  “Witnessing the Birth of VLSI Design" (SSCM)

Ken Shepard,  ““Covering”: How We Missed the Inside-Story of the VLSI Revolution” (SSCM)

As you explore the unfolding VLSI saga, 'go-meta' and think of it as a 'case study'. By doing so, you'll gain perspective on the processes involved in engineering exploration, innovation and paradigm shifting ‒ and on the critical roles that tool-building, exploratory design, rapid-prototyping and the actual 'making of things' play in such events.

Quoem re 'Doing Demos':

“When I grasped the meta-meaning of Doug Englebart’s 1968“Mother of All Demos” it set my mind afire” – Lynn Conway

“ I later conceived and orchestrated MPC79 as the “Godmother of All Demos.”

However, MPC79 went off so perfectly that only I knew it was the exploratory demonstration-operation

of a self-bootstrapping, self-propagating, paradigm-shifting, techno-social dynamical-system.

Everyone else just reflexively used and built on it, clueless to what it even was,

much less how it'd been created and who’d done that.” – Lynn Conway

“We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan

Reminiscences of DARPA's Strategic Computing Initiative, DOD and USAF ('80s,'90s) and D60 (2018):

The Late-Emergence of Lynn's Hidden Career Legacy, 2013-present:

Computer History Museum Hall of Fellows, 2014

2015 Steinmetz Memorial Lecture, Union College

IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal, 2015

From the IEEE/RSE Maxwell Medal citation:“Her influence on modern electrical engineering is deep and profound, arguably on the scale of Armstrong and Steinmetz.”           Video of RSE Medal Ceremony                  Lynn's Lecture Slides                                               Times story by M. Linklater     Maxwell Medal Citation      Review of Lynn's Lecture

Doctor of Engineering (Hon.Causa), University of Victoria, Nov. 9, 2016                                                                                                          Fellow of the AAAS, Oct. 2016                                    Awarding of Degree (video)                            Orator's Introduction              Event Poster                Lynn's Comments                                             Photos                                  AAAS Member Spotlight

Doctor of Science (Hon.Causa) and Commencement Address, University of Michigan, Dec. 16, 2018                 Announcement                        Citation                               Recipients' Video-Sketches                               Commencement Address Video                            Transcript of Address

Forbes New York Times Los Angeles Times Washington Post (Lily)

IBM Apologizes to Lynn, 52 years  later! IBM Senior VP Diane Gherson and Lynn Conway In conversation during the special IBM online-event. October, 14, 2020.

Michigan Daily Pink News New York Post NY Daily News

Advocating for Women's Full Inclusion and Recognition in STEM:

"Well-behaved women seldom make history" –  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

“When Weirdness breaks out, don’t get upset . . . Do Science On It!” – Lynn Conway

NSF 2015 LGBT Pride-Keynote:

           NSF Pride Site                                    Keynote Brochure                             Video/Audio                         Slideshow                                             

Since I didn’t look like an engineer,

Silicon Valley had no clue what I REALLY DID during the 70’s! 

The Times, UK 11/14/15            Cryptic Tweet             El Diario, Spain 5/11/16           100W100D, 2016             O4U  Conf. Keynote, Stanford, 2016

"The Disappeared: Beyond Winning & Losing", 2018          University Lecture,Syracuse Univ., 2019            UC Davis NSF ADVANCE Seminar, 2019