“I tell students, ‘Even if no one believes in you, the keys to success are to ignore their doubts, pursue your dreams and believe in yourself,” said David Lieu, M.D. ’79. Photo: Steve Zylius, UC Irvine
“I tell students, ‘Even if no one believes in you, the keys to success are to ignore their doubts, pursue your dreams and believe in yourself,” said David Lieu, M.D. ’79. Photo: Steve Zylius, UC Irvine
David Lieu, M.D. ’79, and Diana Lieu ’79 want aspiring doctors to pursue their passions in healthcare without worrying about medical school debt. The couple are the first alumni to endow a full-tuition scholarship to the UC Irvine School of Medicine. In addition to their financial support, the Lieus hope their story will inspire students to persevere through challenges.
David was a teenage volunteer at a hospital when a supervisor told him he was too shy to succeed as a doctor. He wasn’t invited back to volunteer. Undeterred, he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at UC Berkeley – the first in his family to finish high school or go to college – and, at just 19, was accepted to medical school at UC Irvine.
Diana Ma, who was majoring in biology, met David Lieu at a Halloween party sponsored by the Chinese Association at UC Irvine. Like him, she was a first-generation college student whose parents were immigrants. While Diana went on to earn a Pharm.D. from USC and become a pharmacist, her future husband – they were married in 1980 – completed a residency at USC, a fellowship at UCLA and an MBA at UC Berkeley. As a pathologist, he eventually opened his own clinic specializing in ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration and core-needle biopsy with microscopic interpretation to diagnose cancer. Not only does he do more than 2,000 fine-needle aspirations annually, but he teaches the procedure and microscopic interpretation to cytopathology fellows from UC Irvine, UCLA and Cedars-Sinai who rotate through his clinic, as well as to pathologists at national and international medical conferences. David Lieu has been honored for excellence by the College of American Pathologists and the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of the UC Irvine School of Medicine.
“Not too bad for someone who was told he wouldn’t be a good doctor,” he says, laughing. “I tell students, ‘Even if no one believes in you, the keys to success are to ignore their doubts, pursue your dreams and believe in yourself.’”
The Drs. David and Diana Lieu Medical Student Scholarship Endowment, which will cover four years of tuition for one student in each incoming medical school cohort beginning in 2026, fills a crucial need. Doctors today graduate, on average, with $200,000 in debt. Although UC Irvine’s average is slightly lower, the financial burden can put invisible pressure on students to pursue a specialty based on income rather than interest.
“I’m thrilled that David and Diana Lieu are giving medical students a fresh start as they embark on their careers, enabling them to choose a field that engenders their passion and make choices independent of debt,” says Dr. Michael J. Stamos, dean of the UC Irvine School of Medicine.
“I’m thrilled that David and Diana Lieu are giving medical students a fresh start as they embark on their careers, enabling them to choose a field that engenders their passion and make choices independent of debt.”
He envisions offering more scholarships like this, especially in the school’s mission-based programs that focus on developing physician-leaders who serve Latino communities; advocate for African, Black and Caribbean patients; or incorporate the philosophies of integrated medicine. In addition to benefiting scholarship recipients, such funding boosts the medical school’s recruitment efforts.
“Full-tuition scholarships help us attract the best and brightest students who exemplify the UC Irvine School of Medicine’s mission to discover, teach, heal,” Stamos adds. “The Lieus have been steadfast supporters for decades, and now, by paying it forward to the next generation, they are going to help propel the UC Irvine School of Medicine into the top 25 nationally.”
This endowment is the Lieus’ third major gift to their alma mater. In 2015, they created a fellowship for first-generation college students attending UC Irvine’s School of Medicine that covered books, food and parking. That same year, Diana Lieu and her siblings established an undergraduate scholarship in honor of their parents, the Thomas and Lillian Ma Endowed Scholarship. Seven of the Mas’ children and grandchildren have been Anteaters: two of Diana Lieu’s three older siblings and one child of Diana Lieu and each of the three older siblings. In keeping with family tradition, Diana and David Lieu’s son graduated from UC Irvine, while their daughter followed her father’s footsteps to UC Berkeley.
The couple’s unflagging commitment to fellow Anteaters is rooted in their own experiences as children of immigrants who encouraged them to use education as a stepping-stone to a better life. Diana Lieu was a Regents’ Scholar, which made it possible for her to attend UC Irvine. And David Lieu’s parents feared that he would not be admitted if the medical school knew his family couldn’t afford to pay, so he avoided applying for financial aid until after classes started. When he finally did, he also received a Regents’ Scholarship.
“We were students at one time who did not have any education or any money,” David Lieu says. “We think about how much UC Irvine has helped our careers, and we want to pave the way for the next person – make it easier for them.”
In recognition of the Lieus’ support of the UC Irvine School of Medicine, the student gathering space on the third floor of the Medical Education Building will bear their names. David Lieu, reflecting on his own journey, wrote words of encouragement to current students using the room: “If you doubt yourself, take solace in the fact that UCI believes in you. … You are here because you deserve to be here.”
David and Diana Lieu believe in them too.
