IBM in a statement, officially apologizes for the dismissal of a pioneer computer scientist, just… 52 years later.
On August 29, 1968, IBM's CEO fired the pioneer for the computer scientist era and transsexual Lynn Conway (Lynn Conway), so as to avoid public embarrassment to the company,…. because of the sexual propriceof her Almost 52 years later, in a statement, IBM is apologizing.
According to Forbes, on January 2, 1938, Lynn Conway's life began in Mount Vernon, New York. With an reported IQ of 155, Conway was an outstanding and curious kid who loved math and science as a teenager.
Keep studying physics at MIT and earned her master's degree in electrical engineering at Columbia University's School of Engineering. In 1964, Conway joined IBM Research, where she made major innovations in computer design, securing a promising career at the international conglomerate (IBM was the 7th largest company in the world at the time). In her private life, married and with two young daughters, she lived a seemingly perfect life. But Conway faced a profound existential challenge: she had been born a boy.
While IBM was aware of the key role Conway played for the company, it remained silent all these years. Until August 2020, after 52 years. IBM admitted its mistake and claimed responsibility for Conway's dismissal, saying, "We are deeply saddened by the plight of Lynn."
The company also explained that it was in contact with Conway for a formal solution, which came two months later. Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM and other senior executives had decided that Conway should be recognized and awarded some kind of award "for all its technical achievements".
Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, revealed the award and said:
“Lynn was recently awarded the rare IBM Lifetime Achievement Award, given to individuals who have changed the world through technological inventions. Lynn's outstanding technical achievements helped define the modern information technologyof industry. It paved the way for how we design and manufacture computing chips today and changed microelectronics, devices and people's lives forever."
The company also acknowledged that after Conway left in 1968, her research helped the company's success. In 1965 Lynn created the simulator Advanced Computing System-1 architectural level and invented a method that led to the development of a supercomputer. This dynamic instruction programming invention was later used in computer chips.
