Two Alumni Win Luce Scholarships, to Study in Asia

Posted on March 23, 2006

Two recent UNC graduates, Nicholas Love ’05 and David Chapman ’03, have been awarded 2006 Luce Scholarships to live and learn in Asia – two of 18 scholarships awarded nationwide.

Carolina has had a total of 26 Luce Scholars since the program began in 1974 and ranks second only to Harvard, with 27, for producing Luce Scholars.

Love, who majored in biology, is pursuing a master’s degree in zoology at the University of Cambridge in England through a Churchill Scholarship. He plans to focus on a career in stem cell research. Chapman, who majored in dramatic art, is the assistant director of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. He also was a 2003 Fulbright Scholar in Hungary.

The Henry Luce Foundation provides the scholarships for a year’s internship in Asia, with the goal of acquainting future American leaders with Asian colleagues in their fields. Candidates can have no prior experience with Asia. Winners are chosen for academic achievement and leadership ability. Nationwide, 67 colleges and universities are eligible to nominate Luce candidates. The scholars will find out their specific assignments by June and will spend part of the summer in language study to prepare for their time in Asia.

“UNC students have competed for the Luce Scholarship with amazing success. To have two recipients this year is a singular tribute to Nicholas Love and David Chapman,” said George Lensing, director of the UNC Office of Distinguished Scholarships. “Nicholas is already conducting original research in internal regenerative tissues in mammals in the attempt to learn more about adult stem cells. David is a theatrical prodigy. He has written, performed, directed and produced plays both as an undergraduate here and in the years since his graduation. Both are already forces of influence within their respective spheres of interest, and it is noteworthy that both discovered and developed these interests intensively while studying as undergraduates at Carolina.”

Love hopes to pursue his interest in tissue regeneration research while in Asia and to have a future career as a scientist and scholar.

“Scientists in Asia are expanding our knowledge of regeneration,” Love wrote in his Luce application. “As a graduate student, it will be invaluable for me to stand on the edge of this new scientific horizon. But a year in Asia will bring much more: a fascinating culture, the challenge of a new language, exposure to different ways of thinking. I cannot help but imagine what I will discover.”

Love began to concentrate on a specific aspect of vascular biology during his senior year at UNC, namely the way blood vessels can help regenerate injured tissue. Vascular research also is crucial in understanding cancer because tumors must recruit blood vessels to stay alive and grow. Love already has won two other distinguished competitive scholarships. He was awarded a 2005 Churchill Scholarship to pursue a year of graduate study at the University of Cambridge with Dr. Enrique Amaya, who pioneered the use of the lab-adapted frog, Xenopus tropicalis, for use in tissue regeneration.

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