News

Bakersfield Student Ready to Go the Distance at UC Merced

September 9, 2024

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2024 semester. A high school distance runner from Bakersfield is striding into new territory, becoming the first person in her family to attend college. Leslie Aquino brings academic distinction and a reputation...

Physics Grad Student Receives Competitive UC Fellowship

September 5, 2024

Ph.D. student Micah Oeur has been awarded a 2024-2025 UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship to support her physics research and boost her goal to be a professor. PPPF’s goal is to enhance faculty pathways for historically underrepresented groups, particularly Chicanx/Latinx, African Americans...

Mellon Grant Launches ‘Interwoven Futures’ Community Partnership Project

September 5, 2024

UC Merced has received a $750,000 boost to its mission to invest in the San Joaquin Valley’s unique cultural, creative and linguistic wealth by working with the region’s people to strengthen communities and champion social justice. The university’s Center for the Humanities will use a three-year...

Study: People Facing Life-or-Death Choice Put Too Much Trust in AI

September 4, 2024

In simulated life-or-death decisions, about two-thirds of people in a UC Merced study allowed a robot to change their minds when it disagreed with them -- an alarming display of excessive trust in artificial intelligence, researchers said. Human subjects allowed robots to sway their judgment...

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

September 4, 2024

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...

Researchers Discover Mechanism that Could Control Longevity, Cancer Cell Production

September 3, 2024

Researchers at UC Merced used fruit flies to uncover a cellular process common to many organisms that could dramatically impact the understanding of cancer and aging. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Fred Wolf, then-graduate student Sammy Villa and Genentech Vice President and...

Enthusiasm High for Debut of Environmental Humanities Major

August 30, 2024

More than 170 students have enrolled this fall for classes in UC Merced’s new environmental humanities major, a degree that will prepare them to be advocates and storytellers for the living world. The debut of the bachelor of arts degree is the culmination of years of preparation by faculty and...

Campus Hosts Computational Chemistry Conference

August 22, 2024

UC Merced was the site of the 22nd Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate computational chemistRY (MERCURY) Conference held in mid-July. “MERCURY is delighted to have the University of California, Merced, host this year’s annual meeting on the campus,” said Furman University...

Students Spend Summer Learning about Stem Cells

August 21, 2024

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

August 19, 2024

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...