NEWS

Local angle: Brighton, Mich.

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – Nicholas R. Love, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has won a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, one of the nation’s most distinguished student awards.

The son of Robert and Christine Love of Brighton, Mich., Love was among 310 winners chosen nationwide from 1,113 sophomores and juniors nominated by faculty at U.S. colleges and universities. Each winner will receive up to $7,500 per year for undergraduate educational expenses.

Love, a biology major, intends to pursue a doctorate in developmental biology and a professorship at a research university. "I would like to … continue my dedication to science, not only conducting developmental biological research, but also teaching the science of life to students," he wrote in his Goldwater application.

Love began biological research at UNC in spring 2003. He created his own project to explain how cells recruit blood vessels, and what conditions prevent them from doing so. Because malignant tumors must recruit blood vessels to grow, understanding this process is key to unraveling the mysteries of cancer, he wrote.

"Nick Love is an absolutely outstanding undergraduate who already shows all the characteristics of the very successful scientist," said UNC mathematics professor Dr. Norberto Kerzman, Goldwater scholarship campus representative. "He excels in the overall conception of his research subject and shows diligence in mastering experimental techniques."

The Goldwater Foundation of Springfield, Va., awards the scholarships annually to juniors and sophomores who demonstrate commitment to careers in mathematics, the sciences or engineering. Candidates must display intellectual curiosity and intensity and show potential for major contributions in their fields.

Congress created the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986 to honor the late Sen. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate.

Love is UNC’s 23rd Goldwater Scholar since UNC began participating in the program in 1989. Since 1990, UNC has had at least one winner every year except 1996. Two Carolina students won in five of those years and three in both 1999 and 2003.

Love, 21, graduated from Pinckney Community High School in Pinckney, Mich. He has a 4.0 grade-point average and made the dean’s list his first two years at UNC. An honors student, Love won the biology department’s I.R. Hagadorn Award this year for the outstanding junior in the discipline.

He is a member of Delta Delta Sigma, an academic honor society; and has taken classical guitar lessons in the music department since fall 2003.

This semester Love is studying abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia. The small coastal town about 50 miles south of Sydney is named for the aboriginal word for "sound of the wave."

Love played on the men’s junior varsity basketball team his first two years at UNC, becoming a team captain. But his life took a sharp turn late in his sophomore year, when he sought out his biology professor, Dr. Victoria Bautch, with a question about her course.

He found her in her lab, where Bautch and nine students, post-doctoral fellows and others work to understand how blood vessels form – a quest with important implications for human health.

Besides asking his question, Love quizzed Bautch about her lab and research; she showed him around. "The questions he was asking were just phenomenal for someone at his level," she said.

Love wrote, "I was in a mild state of awe the entire time. I went home that night and emailed her about the possibility of allowing me to work in the lab … I have been working there ever since."

Bautch became a major inspiration and mentor for Love, Kerzman said. Noting his aptitude, initiative and enthusiasm, she said she will welcome Love back this summer.

"He had never been exposed to experimental science before, and he took to it like a fish takes to water," Bautch said. "We didn’t have to do a whole lot except show him where the pond was."

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(Gunter, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication.)

Contact: Norberto Kerzman, (919) 962-9605, kerzman@unc.edu

News Services Contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu