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This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. 

Rolando Ortega is closing in on his dream of earning a Ph.D. This fall, the Cal-Bridge scholar from Los Angeles County joins UC Merced to start his doctoral journey. With experience spanning national labs, NASA outreach and cutting-edge research, Ortega is ready to design devices that push the boundaries of science and technology.

Where I come from: I was born and raised in Baldwin Park and graduated from Baldwin Park High School in 2018.  

Illustration for UC Merced home price database research
A groundbreaking database that tracks 13 decades of annual changes in U.S. home sales and rental prices provides a clearer picture of economic shifts through the 20th century and will be a valuable resource for homebuyers, housing policymakers and the real estate industry, a UC Merced researcher...
In recognition for its continuing efforts to advance Latino student success, UC Merced has earned recertification of the prestigious Seal of Excelencia. The Seal is a national certification for institutions that strive to go beyond enrollment and more intentionally serve Latino students. The...
Pictured are RESTORE facility leaders Jennifer Manilay, Kara McCloskey, Changqing Li, and David Gravano.
Stem cells hold vast potential to help people live healthier lives. UC Merced researchers have delved into expanded uses of these cells, which can be used to create any cell in the body, to replace damaged cardiac tissue and grow new blood vessels, among other uses. A $5.4 million grant from one of...
Two females sitting
Karla Seijas is one of 14 individuals selected from across the nation as an Elizabeth Dole Foundation Caregiver Fellow. The Elizabeth Dole Foundation supports a community of more than 5.5 million spouses, parents, family members and loved ones who provide care to wounded, ill and injured service...
Depicted are mouse embryonic stem cell derived-tip endothelial cells with nontip endothelial cells
A grant from National Institutes of Health will fund research into using stem cell-derived cells to grow new blood vessels in areas that might have blockages. The $416,741 grant will fund work by chemical and materials engineering Professor Kara McCloskey, working with co-principal investigator...
Carlos Diaz Alvarenga and his wife, Rocio Medrano Calderon, are pictured.
It is a serious understatement to say Carlos Diaz Alvarenga had a big year: He graduated from UC Merced, successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis and landed a position as an assistant professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Oh, and he got married. "Yeah, those are all big life events and I did them...
Lab members Zabir Mahmud and Farzan ZareAfifi are pictured on either side of electrical engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz.
As California lawmakers consider a package of bills aimed at increasing the production of clean energy, a major question arises: How would we store all this new power? Storage is a vital issue because while the state can create plenty of energy through solar, wind and hydro power, there must be...
Kara McCloskey and students in her lab are shown.
A diverse group of students participated in a stem cell training pilot program at UC Merced this summer. It was the second summer for the Training Undergrads in Stem Cell Engineering and Biology (TUSCEB) program, funded through the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). It's a...
What would it take to connect the University of California's campuses in Merced, Berkeley, Davis and Santa Cruz with a safe and sustainable system of air taxis that ferries students, faculty, staff and cargo across Northern California? That's the question posed by the 2023-24 CITRIS Aviation Prize...
Thomas “Teddy” Adams has been awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The three-year fellowship covers tuition and university fees and provides a monthly stipend of $3,600, along with access to additional funding...
New UC Merced student Antonio
  This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2024 semester. After diving into robotics in high school, Antonio "Tony" Lopez-Blanco is eager to attend UC Merced in pursuit of a career that reaches for the sky. Lopez says he is “ready to learn, ready to work...
"I like research on the Internet of Things because it solves problems in people's lives," said Shijia Pan , a professor of computer science and engineering at UC Merced and a principal investigator at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao...
Ph.D. candidate Arabi Seshappan will spend 10 months at a satellite campus of the Université Paris-Saclay in France after being selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Persistence has paid off for UC Merced doctoral candidate Arabi Seshappan. The graduate student from Fremont, about to start her sixth year, was selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program's Fulbright-Université Paris-Saclay Doctoral Research Award, which is only granted to three U.S. students...
Students and faculty are converging on Long Beach this week for the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Seven students will present their research and Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe will serve as one of the meeting’s keynote speakers. This is the first time fourth-year Ph.D....

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