News

'Kopi's Hometown Connections' Highlights Merced 2020 Project

July 7, 2017

Kopi's Hometown Connections, a popular series of features on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, recently visited Merced to highlight the city's many successes, including the rapid growth of its university. Kopi spoke with UC Merced's Richard Cummings about the ambitious, international award-winning Merced 2020...

Study: Critical Sierra Meadows Being Overtaken by Forest

July 5, 2017

Subalpine meadows are among the Sierra Nevada’s most enchantingly picturesque landscapes. These sparsely wooded, grassy expanses are home to plants and animals found nowhere else, and they play an important role in regulating the flow of water from the Sierra snowpack to the rest of the state. But...

Biologists Attend Prestigious Summer Teaching Institutes

June 30, 2017

UC Merced Professor Marcos Garcia-Ojeda and lecturer Kamal Dulai have received Macmillan Travel Awards to learn how to bring more effective teaching into the STEM classroom. The $500 awards cover lodging and travel to one of the Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching’s multi-day regional teaching...

Immigration Status Has Health Implications for Young Latinos, Study Shows

June 28, 2017

Young undocumented Latinos who gain legal status, even on a temporary basis, experience significant positive effects on their psychological well-being, according to a new study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine. UC Merced Professor Whitney Pirtle and UC Davis Professor Caitlin...

Downtown Campus Center Celebrates Construction Milestone

June 26, 2017

UC Merced marked the end of the structural phase of construction for its Downtown Campus Center on June 22 when community partners signed a beam as a symbol of an effort to increase campus and community collaborations in Merced. The new 67,400-square-foot, $45 million administrative facility is...

Researchers Eye Social Media’s Influence on Relationships, Stress

June 23, 2017

Nearly 70 percent of Americans use some form of social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey. There is little doubt it affects our daily lives — but how? UC Merced Ph.D. graduate Holly Rus recently defended her dissertation on social media and well-being. She and her advisor, Professor...

Two Students Receive Strauss Scholarship for Public Service

June 21, 2017

Since 2006, 10 UC Merced undergraduates have been awarded the prestigious Donald A. Strauss Foundation scholarship. This year, two more joined their ranks. The Strauss Foundation selected biological sciences major Pranuthi Kanneganti and public health major Akhila Yechuri as recipients of this year...

Researcher Continues Progress Toward Effective HIV Inhibitor

June 19, 2017

Patricia LiWang was at an impasse. It was 2011 and the UC Merced professor’s research group had figured out how to make some of the most potent HIV inhibitors even more powerful. LiWang was thrilled by these findings; funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) weren’t. “Our...

Study: Wildfires, Climate Change Could Make Sierra a Polluter

June 14, 2017

What if nature were to become a polluter, discharging millions of tons of planet-warming carbon into the atmosphere in much the same way as diesel-fueled trucks or coal-fired power plants? This nature-as-polluter scenario might seem far-fetched, but it’s well on its way to becoming reality,...

New Study Finds Link Between Unconscious Movement and Reading

June 7, 2017

Right now, while you are reading these typewritten words, your hand muscles are moving imperceptibly, but measurably. These movements would be even greater if the words were handwritten. That’s because your motor system strongly contributes to your perception of language, in part by trying to...