Lynn Conway

Lynn Conway grew up in White Plains, New York. She suffered greatly in her early life and career from gender dysphoria and her decision to transition from male to female. Conway created, along with Carver Mead, a formal design method for the very large integrated circuits that define computer chips. Their formal design method guided chip design from system specification through architectural and logic design and to physical layout of components. Her design methods and rules were adopted universally and played a major role in the exponential growth of integrated circuits in everything from automobiles to refrigerators, elevators, telephones, and tanks. Thanks in part to her design methods, computing speeds have increased exponentially, and sizes decreased exponentially—a pattern generally known as Moore’s law.