News

Strauss Foundation Winner, Recent Grad Works to Improve Wheelchair Accessibility

June 29, 2021

In July, Joseph Bello will present his findings for the prestigious Donald A. Strauss Foundation scholarship to United Spinal, the longstanding nonprofit dedicated to overcoming the stigma of disability and increasing inclusivity for wheelchair users. It has taken months of work to prepare, but...

Ph.D. Student Named Underrepresented Chemist of Color by Merck

June 25, 2021

Chemistry and Chemical Biology graduate student Ali Abou Taka is one of 12 students to receive the inaugural Merck Research Award for Underrepresented Chemists of Color. Abou Taka, a Ph.D. student in Professor Hrant Hratchian’s lab, studies the transition of metal complexes that play a critical...

UC Merced Moves Up Eight Spots on International Young University Rankings

June 23, 2021

UC Merced continues to demonstrate academic success, as it was announced today (June 23) that the university ascended to No. 57 on the international 2021 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings, moving up eight places from last year. This year’s list included 475 of the best universities...

California Lieutenant Governor Tours UC Merced

June 17, 2021

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis visited UC Merced in early June for a tour of the new Merced 2020 Project facilities and to learn more about water and agriculture concerns. Kounalakis and UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz led a panel discussion of faculty and local leaders in the agriculture...

From Earth to Space and Back Again: Solar Samples Show Surprising Results

June 17, 2021

When physics graduate student William Delmas made samples of solar energy harvesting perovskite films two years ago, he had no idea that this summer, he’d be analyzing those same samples after they made a round trip to the International Space Station (ISS). “It’s really cool to see this come full...

UC Merced Receives Largest Philanthropic Gift in Campus History

June 15, 2021

Philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, have made the most significant gift to the University of California, Merced, in the university’s 16-year history. Scott announced the $20 million gift in a blog post June 15. In all, the couple donated $2.74 billion to 286...

Staff Members’ Daughter Raises $1,000 to Plant New Trees

June 10, 2021

A core tenet of UC Merced’s mission is public service, something staffers Tom and Esmeralda Martinez know all about thanks to their daughter. On June 5, Merced natives the Martinezes and their 7-year-old daughter, Adison, worked alongside community members and city leaders to clean up Rahilly Park...

Rotary District Scholar to Conduct Sanitation Research in Haiti

June 9, 2021

With COVID-19 protections lifting, many people are eager to travel again. Among them is graduate student Elena Bischak, who is planning multiple trips to Haiti in the coming months to study improving sanitation and human waste processing in the Caribbean country. Bischak is a third-year...

UC Merced Professor Studies How Best to Speed COVID-19 Recovery at Home

June 3, 2021

A UC Merced professor is collaborating with faculty from UCLA and the University of Illinois in a study that aims to find how people might best deal with COVID-19 at home. Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, a professor of health psychology and the director of the Lactation Attachment Technology and Child...

Professor Hestir Turns NASA Technology Toward Earth’s Biodiversity

June 1, 2021

Half a world away from California’s Central Valley is a place with similar climate but an unparalleled diversity of plants, marine animals and ecosystems. From deserts to shrubland to montane forests, the diversity of life in South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) is the subject of...