Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar based in Colorado. She was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1946 and studied literature at the University of Geneva at at Georg August Universität, Göttingen, before moving to the U.S. in 1968. She holds a PhD in French (Utah, 1974), MAs in German and Linguistics (Utah 1972), and has also worked as a software consultant (1983-91), after studying computer s