don't see themselves as being discriminated [against]. But while we've addressed some problems, over all we're not that much better."

Paul Tarau, a professor at the University of North Texas and Dr. Dahl's long-time collaborator, describes her as an early pioneer in computer programming. "Her early work was very courageous for the time," Dr. Tarau says.

The boldness that has defined both her research and her fight for women's rights in the academy may have its roots in Argentina. Dr. Dahl was an undergraduate computer science student at Buenos Aires University during the political violence in the 1970s. When a TA was arrested during class, Dr. Dahl and her classmates occupied their classroom in protest. The military gas-bombed the room and forced the students through a gauntlet of baton-wielding soldiersas they fled.

As political killings and disappearances increased, Dr. Dahl applied for a scholarship to attend graduate school in France. When a childhood friend was machine gunned while trying to enter the university, Dr. Dahl made up her mind. She left in September of 1975, mere months before Argentina's 1976 military coup d'état.

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At Université d'Aix-Marseille, Dr. Dahl was lonely and conflicted. Her friends were being killed and tortured in Argentina while she was in a bucolic Provencal town on the Mediterranean, the most beautiful place she had ever seen. With a full scholarship, she had the privilege to do nothing but study for the first time in her life. Her response was to throw herself into scholarship and she was one of the first female