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Wildfire Disasters Surged in the Past 10 Years, Study Shows

Photo depicts a firefighter battling a blaze at a Southern California home during the Palisades fire in January 2025.

Nearly half of the world’s worst wildfire disasters have occurred in just the past decade, new research from UC Merced’s Fire Resilience Center shows.

Carlos Diaz Alvarenga and his wife, Rocio Medrano Calderon, are pictured.

UC Merced Graduate Ends Exciting Year with Professorship at Cal Poly

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 Develops More Clean Energy, Researchers Delve Into How to Store it

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...

Water Issues Confronting Hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail Trickle Down Into the Rest of California

Kara McCloskey and students in her lab are shown.

Students Spend Summer Learning about Stem Cells

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...

Grad Student Receives Prestigious Defense Fellowship

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...

CITRIS Aviation Prize Delivers Connections, Prizes

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...
New UC Merced student Antonio

Central Coast Student Brings Flair for Robotics to UC Merced

  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...

Do Countertop Compost Machines Really Work?

Researcher's Work Aimed at Helping People Live Better Lives

"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...

Californians say they were fired for leaving their jobs in sweltering heat. Is the state on their side?

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.

Fulbright Award Sends Physics Grad Student to France for Quantum Research

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...

Ecologists’ Meeting Showcases UC Merced Student Researchers and Faculty

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....

A soil fungus that can kill is on the rise in California: What to know about Valley fever

Black And Hispanic Faculty Disadvantaged In Promotion And Tenure Process, Study Finds

First cohort of Grad EXCEL peer mentors

Training Ph.D. Candidates for Peer Support Roles

As a young institution in the University of California system, UC Merced has placed a strong emphasis on serving students who are the first in their families to pursue graduate education. With its strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, UC Merced’s Graduate Division has created a...
Photo depicts UC Merced environmental engineering Professor Josué Medellín-Azuara.

Climate Change is Transforming California Agriculture — But There are Ways to Adapt

California's agriculture faces challenges from a highly variable climate with temperatures that will increase over the next several decades. Droughts are worsening and the Sierra snowpack, integral to the water supply, is volatile. However, there are a number of ways to mitigate those changes, as...

‘Unprecedented’ lawsuit could roll back farmworker union wins from 2023 California law

Photo depicts concrete supports lining a canal in Keyes, California.

Solar Canal Project Earns Environmental Award as Construction Begins

Construction has begun on a pilot project to install solar panels above two sections of Central Valley canals. This innovative initiative, which studies significant power and water issues, has already garnered recognition. Project Nexus, a partnership between the Turlock Irrigation District (TID),...
A female farmer is depicted holding a laptop computer in a field with the sun behind her.

New Paper Shows Best Practices for Inclusive Innovation in Agtech

Farmhand Ventures announces the publication of its research paper, "Inclusive Innovation in Agriculture: Redesigning Agtech Ecosystems for All," funded by UC Merced's Valley Institute for Sustainability, Technology and Agriculture (VISTA). The team of authors, led by Connie Bowen with support from...

Hellman Awards Deepening Research into Genomes, Health and Computer Science

Three faculty members have joined the prestigious ranks of Hellman Fellowship recipients this year. Applied mathematics Professor Tomas Rube, who studies mathematical biology, Professor Andrea Polonijo, a medical sociologist, and computer science and engineering Professor Peingfei Su will...

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