Reid Magdanz ’12, an environmental studies major, has been awarded a Luce Scholarship to spend a year working in Asia, Director for National Fellowships Katherine Dailinger said over the weekend.

Alaska-native Magdanz will use the scholarship to work a one-year internship — he’s not sure where — in a part of Asia where preservation and industrial development interact with traditional ways of life.

“I’m interested in how this subsistence way of life interacts with, and is threatened by, other uses of the land, including industrial development, conservation, recreational use, and sport hunting and fishing,” Magdanz said in a Sunday email. “My career interest lies in finding ways for all these uses to be accommodated, with a particular focus on preserving the subsistence way of life.”

Magdanz is one of 18 American students who won the Luce, which was established in 1974 to boost interest in Asia among non-Asia specialists. In all, 143 candidates were nominated by 62 different colleges and universities.