Madhulika Srikanth is 24 but looks younger. When John Bardo learned what she's doing at his engineering school, the president of Wichita State University talked about her with bemused pride.

"We've got a young kid working with nanobots to treat cancer," he told people. "She looks young enough, if she ever goes out, she probably gets carded every place she walks in."

Hearing this later, Srikanth grinned. It's actually nanotechnology, and not nanobots, she said. And between classes, lab work and work as a teaching assistant she logs 55 to 60 hours of study and work every week; there's little time for going out.

Besides finding promising leads in cancer treatment research, Srikanth has become for Bardo and other top administrators another example of the value of 1,800 international students studying at or working with WSU. At a university that prides itself on research, she's one of the more promising Ph.D. candidates.

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