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Could this major California city see mass ‘abandonment’?

June 2, 2025

Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland

June 2, 2025
An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate. A new study published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment by UC Merced...

UC Merced Directs Program to Train Quantum Science Workforce

May 30, 2025
A new program led by UC Merced in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory aims to train graduate and undergraduate students to work in the rapidly growing industry of quantum information science and technology, or QIST. The U.S. Department of Energy's RENEW (Reaching a New Energy...

Dusty Skies in California Farm Country

May 29, 2025

Hmong American Celebration Honors UC Merced Pioneers

May 29, 2025
UC Merced’s campus community was represented at Merced County’s Hmong American Day, which celebrated a people’s 50-year journey from war and oppression to acceptance and achievement in the United States. Chou Her, UC Merced chief of police and assistant vice chancellor, gave the keynote speech at...

UC Merced Brings Climate Justice Course to Title I High School Students Across the Nation

May 28, 2025
Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a UC Merced course , through a unique partnership between the University of California and the National Education Equity Lab. Guided by its mantra, "Talent is evenly...

Gift Creates UC Merced’s First Endowed Chair in Agricultural Technology

May 21, 2025
A new endowed chair will significantly enhance UC Merced’s work to advance research and innovation in the agricultural technology sector. Housed in the School of Engineering, the Christine Nemec Long Endowed Chair in Agricultural Technology was created through a generous gift from longtime UC...

UC Merced Project Aims to Strengthen Heat Relief in Kern County

May 21, 2025
In California’s Kern County, nearly 925,000 people live in oppressive heat 125 days per year. Several types of relief are offered. Residents can get breaks on energy bills bloated by air conditioning costs. Triple-digit temperatures trigger the opening of public buildings labeled “cooling centers...

UC Merced Graduates Encouraged to Embrace Every Moment

May 19, 2025
With cheers, hugs and leis, more than 1,500 UC Merced graduates received a celebratory sendoff to their bright futures as a prominent keynote speaker told them to make the most of the here and now. Hundreds of families and friends joined the graduates in three days of commencement ceremonies at the...

'It's Ours!' Merced Selected for UC's Newest Campus 30 Years Ago

May 19, 2025
On May 18, 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to select Merced as the site for its ninth undergraduate campus. To get to that point, Merced had to beat out what started as a list of 85 potential sites drawn up in 1989, after regents announced the year before they wanted to...

UC Merced to Celebrate the Class of 2025 with Spring Commencement Ceremonies

May 14, 2025
The University of California, Merced, will celebrate the accomplishments of more than 1,500 students during its Spring 2025 Commencement ceremonies, to be held May 16 -18 on the UC Merced Recreation Field. The ceremonies will recognize graduates from all academic schools over three days of...

UC Merced Alumna’s Legal Career Soars in Silicon Valley

May 13, 2025
Temnee Wright (’08) has realized a successful career as legal counsel at several Silicon Valley companies. Her interest in law was forged at UC Merced, where she made the most out of being a student in the university’s first undergraduate class. Wright is the senior commercial counsel for San Jose-...

In America’s ‘salad bowl,’ farmers invest in guest worker housing, hoping to stabilize workforce

May 12, 2025

Dust is a Danger to Central Valley Health and Will Likely Get Worse, Researchers Find

May 12, 2025
People don't think about dust much until it's time to clean the house, but a new report by UC researchers could raise awareness of the growing threat of dust and dust storms. Dust affects everything from cardiovascular and brain health to traffic collisions and agricultural yield. “Beyond the Haze...

A Picture of Kindness: Campus Photographer Adrover to Retire

May 7, 2025
Through the lens of Veronica Adrover we have seen buildings rise, graduates cheer and lasers glow. We’ve seen governors, a First Lady and a former U.S. president. We’ve glimpsed a young bobcat in tall grass and celebrated young Bobcats in labs, corridors and classrooms. Through 20 years at UC...

One extreme weather event is expected to become more common in California. Here’s what to know

May 6, 2025

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains

May 5, 2025
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment. A new study by UC Merced researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the United States that year. How? With schools and businesses...

UC Merced Gifted New Bicycle Fleet

May 1, 2025
Thanks to a bicycle fleet donation to the campus, UC Merced students will soon have more transportation options and access to bike riding and safety programs. The generous gift of 50 fully assembled mountain bikes is from specialty fire-glass manufacturer SAFTI FIRST and company president and owner...

NSF Award Supports Young Faculty Member’s Research into Building Blocks of the Universe

May 1, 2025
Cosmology Professor Anna Nierenberg has received a CAREER award for a project that will vastly improve the study of the nature of dark matter in the universe. She is the 42nd researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards are among the...

Sociology Graduate Program Debuts Strongly in U.S. News Rankings

April 30, 2025
Only 10 years after it began, the Ph.D. program in UC Merced’s Department of Sociology made an impressive debut in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings of graduate-level offerings. The Sociology graduate program tied for No. 64 nationally, sharing the position with UC Riverside, Temple...

UC Merced Student’s Photography Joins Exhibit of Young Valley Talent

April 29, 2025
Zachary Silva’s camera escorts us to extraordinary places. We see UC Merced from high above, the land around the campus warped by a fisheye lens. We look straight down a pole at a fluttering U.S. flag and two lonely tractors. These eye-popping points of view are among other photographs by Silva on...

For the First Time, All Avian Evolutionary Relationships Revealed Through Collaboration

April 29, 2025
Professor Emily Jane McTavish and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have mapped the evolution of every known bird species. They created a complete evolutionary tree of bird species by combining data on 9,239 species published in nearly 300 studies between 1990 and 2024 and additional...

Carnegie Recognizes UC Merced for Student Access, Grad Earnings

April 28, 2025
UC Merced has earned two 2025 Carnegie distinctions, the Student Access and Earnings Classification “Opportunity Colleges and Universities” and the Institutional Classification by the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education. “It speaks to the mission and values we uphold as a...

Chemistry Ph.D. Student Wins Campus Grad Slam Top Prize, Advances to UC-wide Final

April 28, 2025
Adekunle “Kunle” Adewole isn’t a stranger to the spotlight, having grown up singing at family functions and performing in theater productions. He also has fervently watched “The Voice,” a singing reality competition television series, envisioning himself performing on stage. “’The Voice’ is part of...

Sociology Ph.D. Student Examines Why Workers Protest in El Salvador

April 25, 2025
UC Merced Sociology graduate student Luis Rubén González Márquez has a new first-authored article titled “The Glocal Foundations of Threat-Driven Labor Resistance to Authoritarian Capitalism,” published by UC Press in the Sociology of Development journal with his advisor, Professor Paul Almeida....

Team Advances In Aviation Prize Contest

April 25, 2025
A team of UC Merced students and their adviser has entered the second phase of the 2024-25 CITRIS Aviation Prize design contest. Students Yael Xavier Andujar, Monica Cruz Gaspar, Ana Hernandez, Kyra Ruiz, Randy Serrano and mechanical engineering Professor Francesco Danzi will compete against three...

Students at Bobcat Day: Why I Chose UC Merced

April 23, 2025
UC Merced is only two decades into its mission of shaping the next generation of trailblazers. But that’s more than enough time for multiple Bobcats to come from the same family. Dawit Gemeda’s sister attended the university about eight years ago, so the surroundings felt comfortably familiar when...

Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025

April 22, 2025
Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable. "There's a lot that we know, and a lot we don't know," he said. However, Abatzoglou said, some conclusions can be drawn...

Students Get Real-world Education with Behavioral Health Internships

April 21, 2025
UC Merced students are getting first-hand experience in providing mental health care to the most vulnerable and needful among us, thanks to a partnership between the university and Merced County. Undergraduate psychology majors are serving as interns at the county’s Department of Behavioral Health...

Link Between Dementia and Air Pollution Drives Research Collaboration

April 17, 2025
California’s Central Valley, famous for producing much of the food Americans eat, is also infamous for its inferior air quality and its high rates of poverty, housing insecurity and at-risk workers. Increasing epidemiological evidence has shown a correlation between long-term exposure to fine...

Graduate Student Earns Fellowship to Study Fusion at Livermore Lab

April 16, 2025
UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting experiments and simulations that could lead to faster fusion ignition. The UC-National Lab In-Residence...

UC Merced to Welcome Future Bobcats at Bobcat Day Celebration

April 16, 2025
UC Merced is excited to welcome admitted students, their families and friends for another unforgettable Bobcat Day. Set for Saturday, April 19, this annual open house promises a full day of engaging presentations, activities and a firsthand look at life as a Bobcat. Throughout the event, faculty,...

Into the Woods: Nature Works its Magic in Shakespeare in Yosemite

April 15, 2025
If Arden, the sprawling, wild forest in William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” were in the United States instead of the Bard’s imagination, it would certainly be a national park. Like Yosemite. That is why this light comedy is an ideal fit for the annual UC Merced theater project that weaves...

Film Documents the Struggle of Growing Old Behind Bars

April 14, 2025
A UC Merced professor entered the bleak world of a fading, 64-year-old man in a Virginia state prison to illustrate the challenges of being elderly and incarcerated. “Where’s My Coffee Cup?” is a half-hour documentary by media and performance studies Professor Yehuda Sharim. It premieres April 18...

Bringing Ideas to Market the Topic of Event at UC Merced

April 14, 2025
Developing a great idea is an accomplishment in itself. But taking it to the next step — into potential commercialization and market opportunities — has the potential to both affect change in the world and produce a livelihood. On April 18, the UC Merced Office of Office of Technology, Innovation...

UC Merced Celebrates Student Philanthropy Month With Leadership, Service and Giving

April 11, 2025
In March, UC Merced wrapped up another successful Student Philanthropy Month, an annual tradition led by the Student Alumni Association that inspires students to engage in the spirit of giving and service. The monthlong celebration offers students a deeper understanding of philanthropy and its...

Social Sciences Graduate Programs Shine in U.S. News Rankings

April 10, 2025
UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts made a splash in the latest rankings of university graduate programs compiled by U.S. News and World Report. The university’s Political Science program ranked 52nd in the nation, tied with UC Riverside, Purdue University-West Lafayette...

Experts to Provide Outlook of Upcoming Fire Season

April 10, 2025
What will California's fire season look like in 2025? A panel of UC Merced experts, joined by the founder of a public safety information nonprofit organization, will conduct an in-depth discussion of the risks, repercussions and forecasts, and what communities can do to be prepared. The Fire...

Texas AG Ken Paxton launches investigation into Kellogg's over artificial food colorings

April 9, 2025

Three Engineering Programs Ranked in Top 100 by U.S. News

April 8, 2025
UC Merced’s School of Engineering and its programs continue to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report as demonstrated in the release today of its 2025 Best Graduate Schools rankings. The R1 school advanced three spots in the latest Best Overall Engineering Schools rankings, inching closer to...

Californians see undocumented immigrants as essential to economy, poll finds

April 7, 2025

Address Stigma, Build Strength: UC Merced Co-leads Project to Lower LGBTQ2S+ Use of Nicotine

April 7, 2025
LGBTQ2S+ individuals use tobacco and nicotine products at significantly higher rates than straight and cisgender people, research shows. Reasons can include stress and other health problems brought on by systemic and social prejudice, along with barriers to support for breaking the habit. UC Merced...

Machine Learning Research Earns CAREER award

April 3, 2025
Electrical engineering and computer science Professor Pengfei Su has received a CAREER award for his research on cross-layer performance tuning to enhance deep learning model efficiency. He is the 41st researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF)....

Researchers Make the Case for Charging Cars During the Day

April 1, 2025
Many people with electric vehicles drive them to work during the day and then charge them overnight after returning home. But a simple reversal of that schedule could make it cheaper and easier to charge your electric car. That was the conclusion reached by a team of UC Merced researchers, who...

UC Merced Pride Week: Lambda Alliance Promotes Belonging and Community

March 31, 2025
UC Merced's Lambda Alliance is continuing its tradition of hosting Pride Week from March 31 to April 4. Held each year in April, the week of events celebrates and advocates for the LGBTQ+ community at UC Merced, in the Central Valley and beyond. "We hope that participants walk away with the...

Pew Celebrates 40 Years of Support for Innovative Biomedical Research

March 27, 2025
Note: This article has been republished in part.The full article is available online . When David Mendoza-Cózatl, a 2006 Pew Latin American fellow in the biomedical sciences, got an email soliciting applications for the Pew Innovation Fund, he sprang into action. The program provides alumni from...

Wilson Among This Year’s AAAS Fellows, Recognized for Science and Outreach

March 27, 2025
Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Being elected an AAAS...

Bright Center Student Lightens Lives with Determination, Empathy

March 26, 2025
Sometimes you meet a young person who makes such a powerful impression that you want to vault forward a few decades to see how much they lifted others and elevated our world. Maddison Crump is one of those people. At age 21 she has logged over a dozen years of making a difference. A self-described...

Consortium Looks to Expand Solar-Over-Canal Projects Statewide

March 24, 2025
The first solar-over-canal project in California, which started with research at UC Merced, has begun producing electricity. Plans are now in the works to expand the technology to other areas. A groundbreaking initiative led by faculty from seven top research universities aims to accelerate the...

Celebrate Persian New Year Today with Nowruz Lunch at Pavilion

March 20, 2025
UC Merced Dining Services will celebrate the spring equinox and Persian New Year today with its second annual Nowruz event. Organized by Executive Chef Matt Perez in collaboration with Belinda Braunstein, coordinator of the English Language Institute, lunch will be served at the Pavilion dining...

Computer Vision Researcher Honored for Work in AI

March 19, 2025
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the premier scientific society dedicated to advancing the understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines, has honored a UC Merced professor for his work in AI. Electrical...

Central Valley Stories Seminar Connects Students to Community

March 18, 2025
Among the UC Merced students’ impressive creations in the dimly lighted room — dioramas, poems, photo collages, paintings in bold colors — Derek Miller’s creation attracted attention. Because it gurgled. It was a tall box open on one side. Balanced on top was a miniature footbridge made of red...

Good Sports: UC Merced basketball headed to national tournament for 1st time

March 14, 2025

Electric Vehicle Pioneer Starts Work at UC Merced

March 14, 2025
UC Merced's electrical engineering major only started a year ago. But it's already made some significant accomplishments and attracted researchers digging into exciting projects. One of them is Professor Eric Cheng, who has done groundbreaking work developing electric and autonomous vehicles, and...

UC Merced Basketball Teams Flying High to Future in NCAA

March 13, 2025
Intercollegiate basketball soared to new heights at UC Merced this season. For the first time, the women’s and men’s teams both advanced to their respective National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship tournaments after stellar regular seasons. The programs’ successes will follow...

UC Merced Doubles Down on Huntington Distinguished Fellowships

March 12, 2025
The Huntington Library in San Marino is one of the world’s greatest sources for independent research in the humanities, with documents and artifacts that span 11 centuries. Scholars from more than 30 nations visit its reading rooms or tap into its digital services. Each year, the library awards 15...

Thymus Research Could Unlock Immune System Improvements

March 12, 2025
A multimillion-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund research at UC Merced that could help cancer patients and others live longer, healthier lives. The $3.5 million, five-year grant will fund bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer's lab, which is investigating the thymus, a...

At UC Merced, Shannon Lee Talks About Expanding Legacy of Her Martial Arts Hero Father

March 11, 2025
Shannon Lee – whose extensive resume includes roles as author, producer and legacy-keeper of her father, martial arts icon Bruce Lee -- visited UC Merced on March 6 as a special guest speaker. The event, held in recognition of Women’s History Month, spotlighted her career highlights, not only as...

Health of California dairy workers was compromised as bird flu spread, new study says

March 10, 2025

Finalists Vie for Campus Grad Slam Champion Title During Research Week

March 10, 2025
Each spring, master’s and doctoral students across UC Merced’s 18 graduate groups are invited to contend in the campus’s Grad Slam Finals. They are given three minutes and one visual slide to present their research to a panel of non-specialist judges. This year’s competition will take place during...

Research Week Highlights Important Work at UC Merced

March 8, 2025
Each year, UC Merced dedicates a week to highlight some of the significant research being conducted at the university. Research Week is an opportunity for the wider campus and the public to see projects in various subjects. The 2025 Research Week celebration has special significance because UC...

Latinos often struggle to keep their footing in the middle class. The fires made it even harder for these families

March 7, 2025

Author Shannon Lee to Discuss Dad Bruce at UC Merced Event

March 4, 2025
Shannon Lee, a New York Times bestselling author and the daughter of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, will share her father's messages of healing and unity Thursday, March 6, at UC Merced. The event, which is free and open to the public, also will feature Indonesian-inspired food prepared by UC...

Research Team Focuses on the Next Generations of Scientists

March 4, 2025
The Biology Integration Institute (BII): The Institute for Symbiotic Interactions, Training and Education in the Face of a Changing Climate, or INSITE, stands out because it is supported by $12.5 million from the National Science Foundation, one of the largest NSF grants UC Merced has ever received...

Merced Native Makes Her Mark at the University and in the Community

March 3, 2025
Family is everything to Linda Chang. Chang, a 30-year-old administrative officer with the UC Merced Police Department, was a quiet high school freshman when she joined the Leo Club, the youth branch of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club's community service organization. The youngest of 10 children (...

‘Like someone put a blanket over the ocean’: Kelp could be among fires’ casualties

March 3, 2025

Myles Haynes Wins Big by Creating Human Help Project

February 28, 2025
This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced. Men's basketball senior Myles Haynes has encountered expected and unexpected opportunities at UC Merced, and he has done his best to embrace each one. His journey has led to unique...

Center Engages Campus, Community with Africa and its Diaspora

February 27, 2025
This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced. The brutal deaths of African Americans George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and others at the hands of police officers five years ago catalyzed for Black communities to unite globally and...

Stargazing and Lecture Offer Unique Perspectives on Stars and Exoplanets

February 27, 2025
The night sky is filled with countless mysteries and worlds yet to be explored but that someday might be visited by spacecraft. In a free event titled “Celestial Tales: Stars, Exoplanets and the Myths That Connect Us,” on March 6, the campus community and the public will hear from Professor Yosuke...

New Hmong School Curriculum in Spotlight at UC Merced Conference

February 26, 2025
Educators from across California will gather at UC Merced for an up-close look at a curriculum that teaches schoolchildren about Hmong Americans — their history in Southeast Asia, their cultural traditions, and their journeys to the United States to escape war and deadly oppression. The collection...

The Healthiest Way to Clean Your House

February 25, 2025

Physiological Society Recognizes Rudy Ortiz for Mentoring Underrepresented Students

February 24, 2025
Physiology Professor Rudy M. Ortiz has been named this year's winner of the A. Clifford Barger Underrepresented Minority Mentorship Award by the American Physiological Society. The UC Merced professor was recognized for his leadership, guidance and mentorship of underrepresented minority and...

Todo Cambia Festival Takes New Artistic Directions

February 24, 2025
Todo Cambia, UC Merced’s annual Human Rights Film Festival, is about more than film this year. The seven-day festival kicks off Saturday, March 1 with a talk and readings by a former Texas state poet laureate. Days later, a UC Santa Barbara professor emeritus will discuss his book about the scourge...

Researchers Developing New Tools in Fight Against Methane Emissions

February 20, 2025
UC Merced researchers are taking part in a comprehensive, multi-agency effort aimed at efficiently measuring and mitigating methane emissions. IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory are leading the effort, which earned a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy in December. UC Merced's...

Founding Faculty Roland Winston Remembered for Pioneering Solar Energy

February 18, 2025
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Roland Winston, a pioneer in solar energy, engineering and physics, died Feb. 8 at the age of 88 at his home in Merced. A founding faculty member in the schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering at UC Merced, Winston also founded and directed the intercampus...

Engineers Week Events Set at UC Merced

February 14, 2025
A research panel, project demonstrations and banquet are among the festivities planned for Engineers Week at UC Merced. Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, Engineers Week is "dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing...

Student-driven Center Offers Safe Space for Community, Resources and Programs

February 13, 2025
This story is part of a series for Black History Month. Read more stories highlighting Black excellence at UC Merced. The Black Scholars Resource Center might be one of UC Merced’s best-kept secrets, although its leaders hope that changes soon. It takes up two rooms – 101 and 102 – on the...

UC Merced Achieves R1: Highest Tier of Research Classification

February 13, 2025
UC Merced has assumed its place in the top echelon of research institutions in the nation by earning R1 status from Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The announcement was made Thursday morning by the American Council on Education and comes less than 20 years after the...

5 Questions for Indigenous Author of Acclaimed Memoir Coming to UC Merced

February 11, 2025
Deborah Taffa, an Indigenous author and educator whose book about growing up in a mixed-race home and struggling with social acceptance was hailed as one the best memoirs of 2024, will make a special visit to Merced this month. Taffa will make two appearances Tuesday, Feb. 18 to read from her book...

Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center Enlists Wastewater Tests in Fight Against Smoking

February 10, 2025
UC Merced's Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center has embarked on an innovative partnership with university researchers who can track an entire community’s health and habits with samples of human sewage. The project aims to determine trends and levels of nicotine use in San Joaquin Valley...

Program Gives Black Students a Supportive/Solid BASE for Success

February 7, 2025
Editor's Note: This feature is part of a series of stories commemorating Black History Month. For more stories highlighting Black Excellence at UC Merced, visit news.ucmerced.edu/news/black-history-month. Students come to the Black Academic Success & Engagement office for any number of reasons...

UC Merced’s Black Excellence Symposium to Honor Legacy and Inspire Future

February 6, 2025
"A Legacy of Triumph and a Vision for the Future" is the theme of this year's Black Excellence Symposium at UC Merced. The event, part of the university's Valuing Black Lives Initiative, has aimed to advance racial justice and Black liberation since 2021. The symposium is set for 9 a.m. Saturday,...

UC Awards Support Tackling Big Questions in Health, Physics, Agriculture and Climate

February 5, 2025
Faculty members at UC Merced are taking the lead on four Multicampus Research Program Initiatives (MRPI), working with colleagues around the University of California system to address challenges around labor and agriculture, active matter, Indigenous health and fusion energy. “The MRPI program...

Recognizing Late Professor Emeritus' Contributions

February 5, 2025
On Friday, the campus community will hold a remembrance to celebrate the life and contributions of bioengineering Professor Emeritus Ariel Escobar, who died in December. He joined UC Merced in 2008. His laboratory developed new optical, micro-mechanical and electrophysiological techniques for...

Multinational Research Project Shows How Life on Earth can be Measured from Space

February 3, 2025
Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth. An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Erin Hestir demonstrated that Earth's biodiversity can be monitored and...

Projects That Solve Problems Win Awards at I2G

January 31, 2025
Helping diplomats navigate new cultures, removing mircroplastics from stormwater and automating raisin processing: These are some of the projects awarded winning scores at UC Merced's fall Innovate to Grow event. Innovate to Grow, or I2G as it's known on campus, is a twice-a-year showcase for UC...

Study says climate change made conditions that fed California wildfires more likely, more intense

January 30, 2025

World-spanning Art for Earth Kicks Off UC Merced Arts Spring Season

January 30, 2025
An exhibition that collects artistic visions from five continents and weaves them into a compelling plea to protect our planet has found the perfect home for the first few months of 2025. At least that’s how Grace Garnica, manager of UC Merced’s La Galería, sees it. And she has a point: The Central...

COVID Lockdown Disrupted Preschoolers’ Social Skills, Trailblazing Research Shows

January 29, 2025
Lockdowns. Social distancing. Shuttered schools and businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic and its sweeping disruptions set off a stampede of “what it’s doing to us” research, focused largely on schoolchildren. How were students’ academics affected? Their mental health? Their social development? Left...

What Kind of Dog Poop Bags Should I Use?

January 27, 2025

Give to UC Merced Campaign Tops $1.4 Million, Breaking Record for Third Year

January 26, 2025
Give to UC Merced, the university’s annual year-end fundraising campaign, was the most successful of its 11-year history, garnering nearly $1.43 million from 647 donors. The tremendous show of generosity far exceeded the original goal of $250,000 from 500 donors. Each year, the UC Merced campaign...

Sensor Provides Cheap, Smart Way to Monitor How Much Water Crops Need

January 24, 2025
As water becomes an ever more precious and unpredictable resource, particularly in the Central Valley, finding ways to precisely irrigate crops is a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. Climate shifts have triggered more frequent and more severe droughts that have reduced the amount...

Should I throw out my kid’s Froot Loops?

January 23, 2025

Why the Battle Against Cancer Needs Awesome Video Games

January 23, 2025
Cancer is vicious. In 2025, it is expected to cause more than 618,000 U.S. deaths — nearly twice the combined populations of Merced and Modesto. Each year, almost half of this nation, young and old, is touched by the disease through personal diagnosis or an afflicted loved one. Jeff Yoshimi joined...

Program Helped Her Finish a Degree After 14 Years. Now She's Helping Others

January 22, 2025
It took Lilly Uvalle a few tries to complete her education at UC Merced. Uvalle started her collegiate career in the fall of 2010 after graduating from Buhach Colony High School in Atwater. "I did two years, my freshman and sophomore years," she said. "Then I withdrew. I tried coming back once in...

The FDA knew long ago that red dye No. 3 causes cancer. Why did it take so long to ban it?

January 15, 2025

Novel Research Reveals Costs, Rewards for Youth Who Serve as Emotion Interpreters

January 13, 2025
Young people whose parents or caregivers aren’t acclimated to their community’s dominant language and culture play a valuable role in bridging communication gaps, including unspoken misunderstandings triggered by a gesture or facial expression. These interpreters, who range from pre-schoolers to...

It's not really the typical time for nasty California fires. What changed that?

January 9, 2025

Former President Carter Inspired Many During Visit to UC Merced

January 9, 2025
In 2010, former President Jimmy Carter made his way to a young University of California, Merced campus to accept the Spendlove Prize in social justice, diplomacy and tolerance and to speak to the National Parks Institute. "This is an honor for me," the president said, according to news accounts of...

Award Supports Research into What Makes Things Stick Under Water

January 8, 2025
Understanding how bacteria and other organisms stick to surfaces in wet environments could help develop better products ranging from medical adhesives to specialized boat paint. UC Merced chemical and materials engineering Professor Roberto Andresen Eguiluz has been awarded $168,700 from the...

Last year, 96% of California was drought-free. A new map is far more grim.

January 5, 2025

Newsom's executive order targets ultra-processed foods, improving public health

January 3, 2025
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