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UC Merced Breakthrough Could Transform How California Monitors Toxic Algae

Photo depicts Brittany Barreto Martinez pouring liquid into a test tube in a lab.

San Luis Reservoir in Merced County - one of California's largest artificial lakes - not only irrigates Central Valley farmland and supplies drinking water across Silicon Valley and the South Bay, but also draws swimmers, boaters and anglers year-round.

Yet for months at a time, forest-green blankets of algae spread across the lake's surface. Despite their calm appearance, these harmful algal blooms, or HABs, can disrupt water supplies, ecosystems and recreation activities - and pose serious health risks.

Photo depicts a UC Merced student holding a 3D printer available for use at the university's Makerspace.

Imagination the Only Limitation at UC Merced's Makerspace

UC Merced's Makerspace lab has been living up to its name recently. The School of Engineering's lab, housed in the Sustainability Research and Engineering building, has been increasingly busy. The Makerspace offers services to courses, research and campus clubs. Last year, Makerspace staff came to...

UC Merced GEM Fellow Seizes Summer Internship Opportunity

Mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate Justus Nwoke was awarded a competitive fellowship from the National GEM Consortium, giving him the opportunity to intern at Lam Research Corporation this summer. Nwoke, who was born in Nigeria, has spent most of his adult life in Wichita Falls, Texas. He...

image with two people with brown/black hair and the Beginnings sculture

Two Social Science Graduate Students Earn Fellowships

UC Merced Ph.D. candidates Eliana Fonsah and Nihan Karagul are recipients of the highly competitive dissertation fellowship from the UC Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). They competed with doctoral candidates from across the UC system, resulting in about 10% of applicants...

Photo depicts UC Merced Professor Christopher Viney and graduate researcher Kiana Shirzad on a blue and gold graphic background

Researchers Apply Materials Science Equation to Broader Real-World Issues

At first glance, a mathematical model that describes how quickly materials transform from one phase to another might seem to have few other practical applications. But what if this kind of model could be adapted to predict the spread of the next pandemic? Two UC Merced researchers have been...

Photo depicts UC Merced student Jesse Martinez operating a robot on the Experimental Smart Farm.

UC Merced's Smart Farm Abuzz with Activity

At UC Merced's biggest lab, students work from before sunrise to well after dusk. They are operating the university's Experimental Smart Farm, 40 acres of dirt and plants, research and experiments. They study everything from pollinators to hydroponics, but there are more than just academic...

Photo depicts the UC Merced team using a large screen to present its project.

Project Envisioning Air Transport Between UC Campuses Earns Award

A simulation for a proposed air transport system among University of California campuses earned an award for a team of UC Merced students. Advised by mechanical engineering Professor Francesco Danzi, students Kyra Ruiz, Randy Serrano, Ana Hernandez, Samir Ahmed and Eduardo Miramontes competed...

Photo depicts the reservoir at the UC Merced Experimental Smart Farm.

Idea for Powering UC Merced Smart Farm a Winner in Solar Energy Contest

A UC Merced team competing in a U.S. Department of Energy contest won its division with a proposal to use floating solar panels to power the campus's Experimental Smart Farm. The Solar District Cup is a collegiate competition that challenges teams to design and model distributed energy systems for...

Photo depicts UC Merced graduate Adamaris Alvarez in a black hat on a blue and gold graphic background.

From Strawberries to Smart Farm: Alum Adamaris Alvarez Grows Passion into a Career Path

Growing up in Watsonville, a vibrant agricultural community on California's Central Coast, Adamaris Alvarez always knew she wanted to work in agriculture. She worked on her family's berry ranch, Alvarez Farms, where she grew a deep appreciation for the hard work agriculture demands. But it wasn't...

Eerie silence hangs over Central Coast farm fields in wake of ICE raids

ICE expands immigration raids into California’s agricultural heartland

Image depicts UC Merced mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro talking to students near a small robot.

Championing the Transition to Clean Energy

Mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro has turned a penchant for systems-level thinking and a longtime love of cars into a climate-resilient research mission. From electric vehicles (EVs) traversing San Francisco's busiest streets to electric appliances such as induction...

Stock image depicts an electronic flight board with multiple delays at an unnamed airport.

Disruptions in the Digital Supply Chain Can Have Major Physical Impacts

Last July, a glitch in a software upgrade by a cybersecurity company impacted 8.5 million computers, resulting in the cancellation of 2,800 flights and delays for 11,000 more. In an increasingly computerized world, digital supply chains use data and analytics to manage the flow of goods, services...

Dunham Named Cal Pac Athletic Director of the Year

UC Merced Executive Director of Recreation & Athletics David Dunham has been named California Pacific Conference Athletic Director of the Year for the second straight year and for the third time in four years. Under Dunham's leadership in 2024-25, UC Merced won a Cal Pac-record 13 conference...

Two UC Merced graduate students wearing blue

Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. This year, NSF awarded 1,000 GRFP fellowships compared to about 2,000 in previous years....

Photo depicts students describing their product, an irrigation sensor, at the Innovate to Grow event at UC Merced.

Creative Solutions Win at Innovation Event

Imagine you're a farmer who uses a drip irrigation system on your crops. On watering day, you open the valve from the canal, then go to your orchard, maybe a few acres away, and wait. Once enough water arrives, you walk back and shut the valve. But that takes a long time and wastes water, a...

Divorce Increases Children's Risk of Death by 55%, Study Reveals

The Central Valley is a major contributor to a growing dust problem, in large part because of agriculture, researchers say.

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

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...

Could this major California city see mass ‘abandonment’?

Photo depicts the blue and gold UCM art installation and professors Chih-Chun Chien, left, and Xiaoyi Lu

UC Merced Directs Program to Train Quantum Science Workforce

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...