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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 
©2020 The Michigan Daily

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SPORTS.......................15
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At the University of Michigan’s 

2018 Winter Commencement, 
Lynn Conway, professor emerita 
of electrical engineering and 
computer science, encouraged 
the graduating class to embrace 
changes and transitions as an 
inevitable part of their future 
adventures. 

“You’re embarking in an era 

of accelerating social change,” 
Conway said. “You’ll encounter 
increasingly 
diverse, 
often 

conflicting ways of thinking.”

She then stepped away from 

the stage to give the class of 2018 
their moment to shine. But on 
Oct. 14, 2020, Conway was the 
one in the spotlight.

At a public event celebrating 

LGBTQ+ 
inclusion, 
the 

International Business Machines 
Corporation presented Conway 
with a rare lifetime achievement 
award. The award accompanied 
IBM’s apology to Conway, which 
came 52 years after the company 
fired her for coming out as 
transgender. 

The 
apology 
epitomized 

what Conway had preached in 
her 
commencement 
address: 

positive change occurs when 
people come together to build 

a future that transcends the 
shortcomings of the past.

Though not a household name 

like Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla 
or Alan Turing, Conway appears 
alongside them in Electronic 
Design’s “Hall of Fame” for 
revolutionizing the microchip, 
which powers technologies from 
smartphones to spacecrafts. In 
1964, Conway began researching 
supercomputers at IBM as a 
man.

Four years later, Conway 

decided to transition and receive 
gender-affirmation 
medical 

care. When she came out, IBM, 
then led by Chief Executive 
Officer T.J. Watson Jr., fired her.

In her memoir, “IBM-ACS: 

Reminiscences 
and 
Lessons 

Learned 
From 
a 
1960’s 

Supercomputer
Project,” 

Conway reflected on the logic 
behind 
IBM’s 
decision. 
She 

wrote 
that 
IBM 
executives 

were concerned that her gender 
transition 
would 
affect 
the 

mental health of her co-workers, 
since 
stigma 
surrounding 

transgender 
people 
was 
so 

pervasive at that time.

“I learned later … that the 

executives feared scandalous 
publicity if my story ever got 
out,” Conway wrote. 

The Michigan Daily sat down 

with Arnold Monto, professor of 
epidemiology at the University 
of Michigan’s School of Public 
Health and recently appointed 
chair of the Food and Drug 
Administration’s 
committee 

evaluating COVID-19 vaccines, 
over the phone on Tuesday, 
Nov. 24. He discussed his role 
on the committee, background 
working with vaccines and how 
the COVID-19 vaccine process 
has worked as a result of the 
pandemic. This interview has 
been edited and condensed for 
clarity. 

The Michigan Daily: What 

is your background working 
with vaccines? 

Arnold Monto: Well, I’ve 

been working here at the 
University of Michigan for 
more than 50 years, working 
with influenza vaccines since 
the start. Matter of fact, during 
the 1968 pandemic, I was 
involved in the study, trying to 
see if you vaccinate school-aged 
children in the community, if 
you can reduce transmission 
in the entire community. This 
is a demonstration of herd 
immunity. So I’ve been at this 
for a long time. Currently, our 
Center (the University “Flu 
Lab”), which I head along with 
Emily Martin, who is very 
much involved in the local 
response, has been evaluating 
influenza vaccines in terms of 
prevention of mild and severe 
influenza.

TMD: How did you get onto 

the committee to evaluate the 
COVID-19 vaccine?

AM: 
The 
Vaccines 
and 

Related Biological Products 
Advisory 
Committee 
is 
a 

standing committee of the 
FDA with four-year terms. 
I was selected to be on that 
committee 
in 
2016 
and 
I 

was chairman for four years 
starting in February 2016. I 
rotated off at the start of this 
year in January, but I was 
asked to come back to chair the 
committee for COVID-19. So it 
was the choice of FDA for me to 
be brought back.

TMD: Recently, there has 

been encouraging news about 
possible COVID-19 vaccines: 
early data from Pfizer’s and 
Moderna’s vaccines show more 
than 90 percent efficacy, with 
AstraZeneca also producing 
somewhat promising results. 
Can you give me some of your 
general thoughts about the 
vaccine timeline, specifically 
what creating a vaccine has 
looked like for the different 
pharmaceutical companies?

AM: Coronavirus vaccines 

have 
been 
produced 
more 

rapidly 
than 
traditionally, 

because 
the 
production 

schedule has been telescoped. 
In 
other 
words, 
because 

funding is available and the 
process for the manufacturers 
has been de-risked, they have 
been able to do things which 
they would generally do in 
sequence, in parallel. 

HEALTH

ALEC COHEN/Daily

U-M Professor Emerita Lynn Conway speaks at the 2018 Winter Commencement in Ann Arbor.
After 52 years, IBM apologizes for 
firing transgender ‘U’ professor

Computer science professor Lynn Conway faced discrimination, stigma in her career

Epidemiologist talks 
role on FDA COVID-19 
committee, research

Dr. Arnold Monto discusses timeline for 
development and distribution of vaccine

RONI KANE
For The Daily 

PAIGE HODDER 
Daily Staff Reporter 

LSA senior Amytess Girgis 

recently 
became 
the 
29th 

student from the University of 
Michigan to receive the Rhodes 
Scholarship, the oldest and 
most prestigious international 
scholarship 
program. 
Girgis 

was awarded the honor for her 
work in campus and community 
organizing and for her thesis 
researching the increase in 
mutual aid groups in the wake 

of the current pandemic. 

The scholarship funds all 

expenses for two to three years 
of study at the University of 
Oxford in England. In this 
year’s list of Rhodes Scholars, 
22 of the 32 Americans chosen 
are students of color, 10 of whom 
are Black, which is the most 
chosen in one year, according 
to the Rhodes Trust press 
release. Nine of the winners are 
first-generation Americans or 
immigrants and one is a DACA 
Dreamer. Additionally, 17 of the 
winners identify as female and 

one as non-binary. 

Girgis is graduating in the 

spring from the University with 
a degree in Political Science. She 
will head to the University of 
Oxford in fall 2021 and told The 
Michigan Daily she is leaning 
toward getting a doctorate in 
philosophy, political science, 
sociology 
or 
anything 
that 

would allow her to specifically 
study social movements. 

Though she is honored to 

win, Girgis said she has some 
conflicting feelings about the 
scholarship and is still digesting 

what it means to be a Rhodes 
Scholar-elect. 

“My primary reaction is 

shock, I still haven’t fully 
internalized that this is really 
happening,” Girgis said. “My 
second 
reaction 
is 
feeling 

the responsibility of what it 
means to carry this title and to 
head to Oxford with all of the 
opportunities it affords and 
what it looks like to take that 
opportunity on behalf of those 
who never get a chance.”

University of Michigan Law 

School alum Theary Seng cut 
her hair live on Radio Free Asia 
this past Thursday. It was not for 
fashion but convenience: should 
she go to jail the next week, she 
wanted to be prepared to deal with 
lice. 

Seng is a well-known political 

activist in Cambodia. She has 
frequently spoken out against 
Prime Minister Hun Sen and his 
government, 
criticizing 
them 

for abusing human rights and 
acting undemocratically. Now, the 
government has charged her with 
committing treason and inciting 
social 
disorder. 
According 
to 

Seng’s lawyer, 60 other activists, 
most of whom reside out of the 
country, have been charged with 
similar counts.

“It’s a show trial,” Seng said in 

an interview with The Michigan 
Daily. 

Human 
rights 
defenders 

have criticized the Hun Sen 
government 
for 
politically-

motivated trials used to imprison 
dozens of journalists, activists and 
members of the opposition party.

Still, Seng is adamant about 

showing up to court. At 8:30 a.m. 
on Thanksgiving Day, Seng will 
defend herself against a jury that 
is likely heavily influenced by the 

government. She will also go to 
court without having received 
an indictment, meaning that she 
doesn’t know what evidence the 
government will present against 
her.

According to Jared Genser, 

a fellow Michigan Law alum 
who has worked with political 
dissidents, this is a violation of 
both Cambodian and international 
law. Genser is representing Seng 
pro bono. 

“What’s happening to Theary 

is, unfortunately, part of a much 
bigger pattern and practice of 
repression of human rights in 
Cambodia,” he said. 

Seng’s former Michigan Law 

classmate 
Glenn 
Kaminsky 

organized a GoFundMe to pay 
for her legal expenses. They 
have crowdfunded a little under 
$13,000 as of Monday afternoon

Seng sought refuge in the 

United States at age nine after both 
her parents were murdered by the 
Khmer Rouge. She and her brother 
moved to Michigan in the middle 
of the winter in 1980, calling the 
transition to cold weather and a 
new culture “baptism by fire.” 

Seng 
said 
she 
considers 

Michigan her home in the U.S. 

“Oh, I love Michigan with all 

my heart,” she said. “It was my 
first introduction to the United 
States.”

INTERNATIONAL

LILY GOODING 
Daily Staff Reporter 

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily

Amytess Girgis, an LSA junior at the time, speaks outside of a Board of Regents meeting in 2019.

ZAYNA SYED 
Daily News Editor

U-M senior Amytess Girgis
named 2021 Rhodes Scholar

Campus activist wins prestigious scholarship to study in the United Kingdom

U-M Law alum goes to
trial in Cambodia amid
crack down on dissidents

Human rights activist Theary Seng faces 
charges from government for her advocacy

See SCHOLAR, Page 2

See VACCINE, Page 3
See APOLOGY, Page 3

See TRIAL, Page 3

