She is the distinguished professor of arts and sciences in astronomy at Cornell University.

[2] She has been on a number of high-level committees within the US and International Astronomical Community, including advisory committee for the Division of Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies (2003–2008) and Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Review (in 2010).

From 1978 until 1981 she worked at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center when she left to become the assistant director for the Green Bank Telescope.

[4] There she worked with collaborator Riccardo Giovanelli, using radio telescopes to map the distribution of galaxies in the Universe.

[5] Together with Riccardo Giovanelli, she worked on the development of the Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope (CCAT) in the mid-1990s, which has led to the construction of the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) on Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile.