No.2, 2011 n $5 Life Saver Nick Shields makes the most of a second chance n ATOMIC POWERS n MRS. WaTKINS Contents | March 2011 22 28 34 28 22 34 COVER STORY Better to Give The Atom Smashers Rescued A diminutive doctor’s daugh- Using the most sophisticated When Nick Shields saved a ter who was shunned in her lab equipment ever devised, 7-year-old boy from drowning own time stands today as a KU physicists and their last summer, it wasn’t the first towering figure in KU history. students are helping unravel death-defying chapter in this Meet Elizabeth Miller Watkins: the deep mysteries of the nursing student’s remarkable KU’s most generous friend. universe. life story. By Chris Lazzarino By Don Lincoln By Steven Hill Cover photograph by Steve Puppe Established in 1902 as The Graduate Magazine Volume 109, No. 2, 2011 ISSUE 2, 2011 | 1 Lift the Chorus ment, and really impressive man, asked if I wanted to “go and inspirational stories about look for the tornado.” With- Your Jayhawks doing good, smart out hesitation (or rational opinion counts things out in the world. thought), I said, “Sure!” Please e-mail us a note Thank you for being We drove toward the at
[email protected] thorough in your coverage and southwestern side of town, to tell us what you think of coming at this project with toward “the mound”—the hill your alumni magazine. what I believe is exactly the that, according to legend, was right spirit. supposed to protect Topeka Emily J.