He knows he woke up in a hospital, but he doesn鈥檛 remember it. He recalls wondering if his arm was wrapped in gauze, out of sight beneath the sheets. Then he realized. His left arm and shoulder had been amputated in a last ditch effort to save his life.

In 2004, Eric Cornell contracted necrotizing faciitis, a rare bacteria that kills 30 percent of people infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria breaks down muscle and fat tissues, giving it the nickname 鈥渇lesh-eating bacteria.鈥� Like most cases, Cornell experienced pain and flu-like symptoms a few days before going to the hospital.

An avid Red Sox fan, Cornell was watching the World Series final in between conversations with doctors. His wife, Celeste Landry says 鈥渢he Red Sox had just won, they鈥檙e all jumping on each other, happy, and Eric says 鈥業 waited a long time for this, I thought I would feel better鈥欌€ut he doesn鈥檛 remember saying that.鈥�

In Cornell鈥檚 case, the bacteria had infected his left arm and shoulder. It is usually contracted through a cut, but Cornell doesn鈥檛 know how he was infected. The morning after being admitted to the emergency room, the decision was reached. They needed to amputate before the infection reached the core of his body. Cornell was unconscious, having been sedated because of the pain.

Landry told the surgeon, 鈥淚f he has his brain, I think he wants to live.鈥�

Cornell was 43 at the time, a Nobel prize winning physicist and father of two. After the amputation he spent seven weeks in the hospital, where he says it 鈥渒ind of sunk in gradually how badly I was hurt.鈥�

Seven years after his amputation, Cornell sits at a circular table in his office at the University of Colorado Boulder, a copy of Classical Electrodynamics laying at an angle on his packed book case. His grey shirt sleeve is tucked neatly inside itself, creating a clean edge to his silhouette. Whether because years have passed since the amputation or because of his natural outlook, Cornell can see humor when describing the darkest period of his life.

鈥淚t was kind of funny because the people who came to see me were very happy鈥� because I had been for about a week quite close to death鈥hey were all happy because I was obviously getting better; I was coming to grips with the fact of how bad I was, I wasn鈥檛 convinced I wasn鈥檛 dying, so it took a little while to be as happy as the people around me were.鈥�

As part of his recovery, Cornell has skin grafts covering a substantial portion of his torso, which were taken from his own body.

鈥淭hey take the skin off the legs, but they have to take what amounts to a very thin layer of the skin so they leave enough skin left on your legs that it can grow back.鈥�

His scientific zeal is evident from the excitement in his voice when he talks about the device used to cut away the skin, an aspect of his recovery most people would cringe at.

鈥淭hey have this thing, kind of like one of those cheese slicers with the wheel and the little wire you know,鈥� they slice a very thin layer of the skin off, it鈥檚 an amazing thing.鈥�

After returning home from seven weeks in the hospital, Landry says they 鈥渕ade gradual adjustments鈥� for Eric.

鈥淗e would ask me to do something, like open a jar, and I鈥檇 open it one handed and look straight in his eyes to tell him that you could have done this yourself,鈥� she said while laughing. 鈥淲hen he wanted to go back to work I said 鈥榶ou have to do the taxes before you can go back鈥� 鈥o he did, and then he could go back to work.鈥�

Cornell is now Chair of , a multidisciplinary research institute. He isn鈥檛 teaching classes as much as he used too, instead advising graduate students on experiments. The students make the adjustments of the lasers now. Cornell says the adjustments are 鈥渢oo fine鈥� to be done with just one hand. He calls his time with graduate students 鈥渢he best part of his day.鈥�

Cornell says he doesn鈥檛 think of his amputation as a severe disability.

鈥淐ompared to a lot of people who are disabled, a single arm amputation is a very mild disability鈥� I look more disabled than I am.鈥�

In his office there are no assistive devices or technologies in sight. That鈥檚 because there aren鈥檛 any. Cornell uses a normal keyboard to type, saying he was 鈥渢oo lazy鈥� to use the voice recognition software daily. He was fitted for a prosthetic arm, but 鈥渄idn鈥檛 find it very useful,鈥� pointing out that prosthetic arms can鈥檛 hold and pick up things. He says they have a can and jar opener at home and a tandem recumbent bike that he and Landry ride, but that most of what they bought after the amputation was given away.

He drives with a turning knob on the steering wheel saying its 鈥渁s safe as people who talk on their cell phones.鈥�

Instead of using a specialized clamping device in the kitchen,鈥淚 end up putting it on the cutting board and wailing on it when I want to cut,鈥� he said, while smiling.

His students see his optimism in the classroom.

鈥淸Cornell] was upbeat about it and made a joke on the first day of class,鈥漵aid Chris Schwaab, a former physics student who was taught by Cornell. 鈥淎fter that, he didn鈥檛 mention it and we talked about physics.鈥�

Schwaab was in Cornell鈥檚 class two years after he lost his arm.

鈥淗e clearly really appreciated the beginning physics and that we were there,鈥� said Schwaab.鈥淗e really enjoyed teaching us even though it was really trivial material to someone like him.鈥�

Schwaab said Cornell 鈥渆xplained things clearly鈥� by using 鈥渓ots of diagrams and examples.鈥�

Cornell continues his work with cold atoms as well as a different project that examines 鈥渉ow symmetric or however so slightly asymmetric the electron is.鈥�

Cornell says he has 鈥渁 very full life鈥� and doesn鈥檛 want to rest on his scientific laurels.

鈥淚鈥檇 like to continue to make discoveries in cold atoms and I鈥檇 love to have this electron experiment work, that would be a really big deal.鈥�

Schwaab says he doesn鈥檛 think of Cornell as being disabled because it didn鈥檛 affect his cognitive abilities as a scientist.

鈥淪o he has one arm. He won a freakin鈥� Nobel.鈥�

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In 2007 KUNC's Brian Larson interviewed Dr. Cornell for this . Jackie Fortier also filed this video to answer the question "How do you play golf with one hand?":
http://vimeo.com/31497444