Biology Major Receives Churchill Scholarship

Posted on May 2, 2005

Nicholas R. Love, a senior majoring in biology at UNC, has received a 2005 Churchill Scholarship to Cambridge University in England.

Love, of Brighton, Mich., was one of the 11 Churchill Scholarships awarded nationwide. Love plans to use the scholarship to earn a graduate degree in zoology at Cambridge.

At Cambridge, Love will work with Dr. Enrique Amaya ’84, who received his bachelor’s degree in zoology from UNC, at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology.

The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States presents the awards annually for a year of graduate study. The scholarships, each valued at about $27,000, reward academic and extracurricular accomplishments. Recipients are American undergraduates planning to pursue graduate studies in science, mathematics and engineering.

Love received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2004, one of the nation’s most distinguished student awards. It is awarded to sophomores and juniors who demonstrate commitment to careers in mathematics, the sciences or engineering.

Particularly interested in furthering cancer research, he found the inspiration to work in developmental biology by working in the laboratory of Victoria L. Bautch, a professor in UNC’s department of biology whose work revolves around vascular research, crucial in understanding cancer because tumors must recruit blood vessels to stay alive and grow.

“The lab work I do now indirectly deals with the blood supply of malignant tumors,” Love said. “I think that a vascular approach to cancer treatment is very promising and one that I could study more at Cambridge.”

Since 1993, 10 UNC students have received the Churchill. The most recent UNC recipient was in 2003.

Churchill Scholars are nominated by a foundation representative at participating universities. Candidates’ applications include four- to five- page autobiographies focusing on scientific interests and one- to two-page research proposals. A foundation committee evaluates the applications, and then the Board of Graduate Studies and department chairs at Cambridge consider nominees’ recommendations and credentials.

Candidates also are evaluated on academic work, Graduate Record Examination scores, capacity for original and creative work, character, adaptability, demonstrated concern for critical problems of society and good health.

---