I am Rutherfurd professor emerita of astronomy. As a student I was told, if you observe a lot and look very carefully at your data you are bound to find interesting things. This has been my motto over the years. I am a radio astronomer and am currently very interested in the role of gas in galaxy evolution. I have explored the fate of gas in different environments, clusters, voids, groups and mergers. I am now investigating the role of gas in galaxy growth over time and am using the new capabilities of the upgraded VLA and MeerKAT. I got my PhD at the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, spent a decade on the scientific staff at the VLA and then joined the faculty at Columbia, where I was DGS for two decades and Chair for 7 years. I have held visiting appointments at the Raman Institute in Bangalore, the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, in Princeton, Berkeley and Caltech.