Editor's Note: The University of Iowa is the university for Iowa. Over the next few weeks we'll be illustrating the many ways that UI serves our state and shapes Iowa's future.

Alex Bartlett of Clive, Iowa, considered leaving her home state for college, but the opportunities the University of Iowa offered her were too good to pass up.

Bartlett is an honors student and recipient of the UI Presidential Scholarship—awarded to only 20 students a year—and was recently an honorable mention for the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

A self-described academic hybrid, Bartlett is in her third year of a double major in chemical engineering and finance, and participates in research with Allan Guymon, professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, studying polymer scaffolds that may advance stem-cell treatments for age-related macular degeneration.

Barlett plans to continue exploring nanotechnology throughout her undergraduate career and beyond, hoping to promote cross-disciplinary solutions to address genetic diseases.