News

UC Merced Grad Student, Alumnus Play Significant Role in Mars 2020 Mission

July 29, 2020

NASA’s fifth exploratory rover is scheduled to head for Mars later this month to try and answer key questions about the potential for life on the red planet. Before the rover leaves Earth, current and former members of UC Merced’s Fundamental Tribology Lab conducted critical tests that will provide...

SNRI Sees a Leadership Transition

July 29, 2020

Change is everywhere at UC Merced this year, from hiring a new chancellor to the completion of a major campus expansion. The Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI), an early hallmark of research excellence at UC Merced, is also making a change: After a 13-year tenure, Faculty Director Professor...

Zatz Aiming for R1 Status as Interim Head of Research, Economic Development

July 27, 2020

Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz has a new title, at least for now. Starting this summer, she is serving as interim vice chancellor for Research and Economic Development, filling the slot left open when Vice Chancellor Sam Traina stepped down to return to the faculty. Zatz has been shadowing Traina...

Low-Wage Work Is Linked to Spread of COVID-19, Study Finds

July 21, 2020

California counties with high numbers of low-wage workers are seeing higher incidence of COVID-19, suggesting a link between so-called “worker distress” and spread of the virus, according to a new study by UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center. While efforts to contain COVID-19 have centered on...

New Project Aims to Advance Understanding of Immune Cells as they Develop

July 20, 2020

Maybe now more than ever, scientists need to understand the immune system. A new National Institutes of Health grant is funding a cross-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer and immunology Professor Jennifer Manilay that will allow them to watch as immune-...

Central Valley Musicians to Perform Online in the Levitt AMP Virtual Music Series

July 17, 2020

UC Merced and the City of Merced, through the Levitt Foundation, are hosting a virtual concert in August as part of the current Levitt AMP Virtual Music Series. The series was moved online in response to the postponement of national in-person events due to COVID-19. Music fans across the country...

Three Awarded UC Pre-Professoriate Fellowships

July 8, 2020

UC Merced graduate students Anabel Castillo, Veronica Lerma and Sammy Villa are recipients of the University of California’s inaugural President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF). The UC Office of the President launched the PPPF as part of its UC-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity...

UC Merced Welcomes Juan Sánchez Muñoz as Fourth Chancellor

July 6, 2020

The University of California, Merced, is nearing the completion of an unprecedented campus expansion project and raising its reputation across the nation and the world, all during a time in which the COVID-19 pandemic has upended nearly every aspect of people’s daily lives and created much...

NASA Renews Campus Research Center for Another Two Years

July 2, 2020

The Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) —UC Merced’s NASA-funded center for nanomaterials-based research and education — has received a two-year, $1.8 million renewal from the federal space agency. Continuing to build on the research already underway, Professor Jennifer Lu,...

UC Merced Rises to No. 3 in Young University Rankings

June 25, 2020

UC Merced’s reputation as a world-class research university continues to grow, as the university rose to No. 3 among U.S. universities in the 2020 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings released this week. The list ranks the best universities in the world that are 50 years old and younger...