This study continues Dr. Knapp's creative and respected studies of the intersterllar medium. Recent improvements in observationalsensitivity, leading to the detection of small amounts of cold gas and dust in elliptical galaxies, offer the opprotunity to study the interstellar medium in situations quite different from that in the galactic disk. These observations will be followed up by infrared dust studies, investigations of the fueling of nuclear activity, and studies of the vertical structure of atomic and molecular gas in the disk of our own galaxy.
