Lynn Conway, a computer scientist and electrical engineer best known for inventing generalized dynamic instruction handling and leading the Mead and Conway chip design revolution, has died. She was 86.

Conway was also an outspoken transgender activist, having undergone gender affirmation surgery in 1968 and then coming out publicly as a transgender woman in 2000.

A graduate of Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, Conway was recruited by IBM Research in 1964 where she worked on the company’s Advanced Computing Systems project as part of a team designing an advanced supercomputer.

It was while working for IBM that she invented multiple-issue out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling. However, after Conway notified the company of her intention to undergo gender affirmation surgery and live as a woman, IBM fired her, an act the company didn't apologize for until 2020.

After leaving IBM and transitioning, Conway led the LSI (large scale integration) Systems team at Xerox, and in 1979, alongside scientist and engineer Carver Mead, Conway co-wrote the Introduction to VLSI (very-large-scale integration) Systems textbook, which bridged the gap between device physicists who fabricated the chips and electronic engineers who were proficient in circuit design.

The textbook’s publication led to the so-called Mead and Conway chip design revolution, resulting in an overhaul of how computer science and electrical engineering were taught and practiced due to its focus on the concept of structured digital design and modular design techniques.

During this time, Conway also pioneered the multi-project chip (MPC) technology service, making it possible to integrate designs from multiple companies, or multiple designs from a single company, onto a single wafer, reducing fabrication costs.

The ideas outlined by Mead and Conway in their textbook ultimately formed the basis for the first well-known MPC service, known as MOSIS (Metal Oxide Silicon Implementation Service).

Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and operated by the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, MOSIS provides metal-oxide-semiconductor chip design tools and related services to universities, government agencies, research institutes, and businesses, enabling them to efficiently and cost-effectively prototype chips.

According to MOSIS, the service has delivered more than 60,000 integrated circuit designs since its inception.

After leaving Xerox in the 1980s, Conway joined DARPA and became a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of engineering at the University of Michigan, before retiring from active teaching and research in 1998.

After coming out as transgender in 2000, Conway became involved with transgender activism, fighting to protect and expand the rights of transgender people whilst also advocating for equal opportunities and employment protections for the trans community in the tech industry.

In a 2020 interview with Forbes, Conway said: "From the 1970s to 1999 I was recognized as breaking the gender barrier in the computer science field as a woman, but in 2000 it became the transgender barrier I was breaking."

Conway died from a heart condition at her home in Jackson, Michigan, on June 9, 2024.