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‘Life in stealth’ of microchip genius who migrated to a new identityLynn Conway beattransgender bias andbegan a revolution,saysMagnus Linklater

When Lynn Conwaystepped on to thestage on Thursdaynight to receive theRoyal Society of

Edinburgh’s (RSE) James ClerkMaxwell Medal award — one of themost prestigious honours in science— few among the audience can haveappreciated the remarkable journeythat led up to that moment.Not only, as a woman, has her

reputation as one of the pioneers ofmicrochip technology beenovershadowed by the male professorwho has been given most of thecredit, for much of her life sheguarded a personal secret that mighthave destroyed her career. In the

1960s, Professor Conway, now 77,invented a system for integratingmultiple sources of information ontoa single circuit. It went on torevolutionise the world of computers,was taken up and developed by mostof the major Silicon Valleycompanies, and is now accepted asone of the breakthrough moments inthe design of the modern high-speedcomputer.Yet her early work was brought to

an abrupt end when she was sackedfrom IBM after revealing that she was

intending to embark on gendertransition. Born a man, and marriedwith two children, she had struggledwith her gender identity, and finallydecided to undergo the treatment thatwould lead to full transition. Whenshe revealed her plans to IBM, bossesat the computer giant abruptly firedher. She went into hiding, underwentthe process of transition on her own,and began her career again, leadingwhat she has described as “a life ofstealth” as a woman.Even after her breakthrough work

on microchip design wasacknowledged, with the publication of

db ki bli i i 1979

a groundbreaking publication in 1979,she concealed her past.“I had no support — certainly not

from my family,” she said. “I was onmy own, I led a life in stealth.” Inthose days transgenderism,particularly if it involved surgery, wasnot only controversial, it wasregarded with deep suspicion.“A lot of the time I was frightened

to death about being found out —really bad things could happen toyou,” she says now. “In San Francisco,when I was transitioning, there was alot of trouble with the police.”She compares her life then to that

of an immigrant embarking on life ina new country, learning a newlanguage, encountering hostility andstigmatisation because of languageand culture. “I had to emigrate,” is theway she puts it.She joined the pioneering company

‘A lot of the time I wasfrightened to deathabout being found out’Xerox PARC, and took up again theresearch she had begun with IBM.What she succeeded in doing was

something that had eluded computerengineers for years — how tointegrate multiple calculations on to asingle chip, hugely increasing thespeed with which they could beprocessed. Known as “very large scaleintegrated circuits”, the title of apublication which went on torevolutionise computer design whenit was rolled out in 1979, it inspiredstudents and professionals to buildand develop a wide range ofmicrochips that changed the industryfor ever. She describes the momentwhen she pressed the “send” buttonon her computer, distributing a workwhich might make or break hercareer, as a seminal one, andcompares it to the kind of decisionyou make when you are rock-li bi ( f h f i )

climbing (one of her favourite sports.)“What I learned from that is how to

develop skills to do hard things evenif you are frightened,” she says.“Stepping off was really tough. Youknew that if you fell over you weregoing to take everybody with you, butyou just think ‘I can do this,’ so youhave a go at it.”Sitting alongside her husband,

Charlie Rogers, a professionalengineer with whom, in their earlylife together, she used to gowhitewater-rafting and motocrosscycling, she describes the technologyof her work on microchips in layman’sterms: “It’s like a queuing problem ina café — you have a number ofpeople waiting in a line to get served.A lot of them are going for differentthings. If you knew what one of themwanted, they could just jump aheadand get served. So you need a systemwith a number of instructions that getthem going through the line andcoming out at the other end without

having to wait.” It was, of course, agreat deal more complex than that,and, in truth, very few people, evenamong her colleagues understoodwhat she was trying to do. Thatincluded Professor Carver Mead, herimmediate superior, whose namealways precedes hers when themicrochip process is described. Theseminal text on the subject,Introduction to VLSI Systems, listsMead’s name first, but was actuallywritten by Conway. “He was theprofessor, he got all the awards,” shetold The Times. At the time she wasoften described as Mead’s assistant.The so-called Mead-Conway

revolution in microchip design is nowrecognised as a critical moment in thedevelopment of today’s high-speedinformation transmission, but it wasnot until 2012 that ProfessorConway’s own contribution was fullyacknowledged. As the citation fromthe RSE puts it, she is the “hiddenh d” i h i hi d i

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Section: News Edition: 01 Date: 14 November 2015 Page: 36,37

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hand” in the microchip designrevolution, a major source ofinnovation in a field that eventuallymade personal computers andsmartphones possible.Looking back at the setbacks and

struggles that marked her earlycareer, she is remarkably phlegmatic.

She refuses to blame IBM for theircruel and insensitive response to herpersonal dilemma, though shedescribes its then head, the late TJWatson, as “a rabid homophobe”.“Times change,” she says. “I tend to

be neutral on things like that. I don’tthink there are good guys and badguys, we simply have differentreference frames. What happenedthen was a function of the time.People are entrapped by rituals theyhave fallen into. Who were the peoplewho burnt witches at the stake,actually believing they were doing theright thing? Look at what happenedin Germany. I would hesitate to getdown on IBM at all. It is not thecompany it was then. IBM haschanged more than most.”Gradually, as her work was

recognised, Professor Conway began

to reveal details of her personal lifeon her own website, and went on tocampaign actively on transgenderissues, becoming a role model forothers in her own position.She was invited to the White

House, drew up a code of ethics forhow her profession should treatlesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenderpeople, and was named last year byTime magazine as one of “21transgender people who influencedAmerican culture.”As she reflects on a life with more

than its share of struggles, she says itis actually the setbacks that havemade her the person she is today.“The clouds have parted, the

darkness has gone, I am really happyat the way things have turned out,”she says now. “The experience hasempowered me.”

Happy to play the game for more than she can lose

What’s the book onyour bedside table?A History of the Worldin 12 Maps, by JerryBrotton

Which disc would youtake to your desertisland?Vivaldi, The FourSeasons

Who would you takeon a one-way trip toMars?Charlie!(my husband)

What’s the best adviceyou’ve ever received,and who was it from?This advice has longhad a major impact onme: “Play the game formore than you canafford to lose. . . onlythen will you learn thegame” — WinstonChurchill

Favourite TV:WestWing or America’s GotTalent?West Wing!

Day offRock-climbing orcomputer lecture?Rock-climbing (onlythese days it would justbe mountainscrambling, rather thanroped vertical-wallclimbing)

High fashion ordungarees?

Definitely dungarees(we call them “jeans”)

Tell us a secret(something that mightbe a little bitembarrassing to admit)My behaviour lets slipthat I never really “grewup” and instead kept onplaying, as if inkindergarten

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Section: News Edition: 01 Date: 14 November 2015 Page: 36,37

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Professor Lynn Conway, who was fired

by IBM when she revealed plans to change gender, has been called the ‘hidden hand’ in the microchip design revolution