I received my MD degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1966, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. My final elective choice at Cornell was in gastroenterology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. There I developed a lifelong interest in the new field of flexible endoscopy and determined to use this powerful method to detect and treat GI malignancies. Training was interrupted by 2 years in the U.S. Public Health Service mostly stationed in Washington, DC, where I also was introduced to esophageal disease and to diagnostic laparoscopy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I returned to MSKCC and Cornell for my GI Fellowship and stayed on for 20 years becoming Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician focusing on diagnosis and management of GI cancer. I was an early pioneer of endoscopic ultrasonography. In 1993, I moved to Columbia, as Clinical Director of Gastroenterology and also joined the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center there. I continued clinical studies on colon cancer prevention and treatment, pancreatic cancer, and most recently on Barrett’s esophagus and esophago-gastric adenocarcinoma. I am currently Attending Physician, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Special Lecturer at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons.