News

Political Science Students Take on Lawmaking and Lobbying at the State Capitol

August 19, 2024

UC Merced political science students returned to Sacramento to get first-hand experience at California’s Capitol with internships. The Center for Analytic Political Engagement (CAPE) Legislative Bootcamp is led by CAPE’s Director Professor Nathan Monroe and Associate Director Adam Gray. The week-...

CITRIS Aviation Prize Delivers Connections, Prizes

August 19, 2024

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...

Researchers Accurately Model Animals’ Hunting, Scavenging Behavior

August 14, 2024

A group of UC Merced researchers modeled predation behaviors, as well as changes in those behaviors, among large carnivores, developing a new theory that will help biologists assess the health of various ecosystems. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences Professor Justin Yeakel, Department...

Central Coast Student Brings Flair for Robotics to UC Merced

August 13, 2024

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...

Researcher's Work Aimed at Helping People Live Better Lives

August 8, 2024

"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...

Psychological Bias Links Good Deeds with Religious Belief, UC Merced Research Says

August 8, 2024

Experiments conducted by UC Merced researchers find that people who perform good deeds are far more likely to be thought of as religious believers than atheists. Moreover, the psychological bias linking kindness and helpfulness with faith appears to be global in scale. Research on the mental link...

Fulbright Award Sends Physics Grad Student to France for Quantum Research

August 7, 2024

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

August 6, 2024

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....

Three Years of Learning and Play at Kids Discovery Station Merced

August 5, 2024

Less than three years ago, the idea of bringing a children’s museum to Merced began to blossom. Since Mayya Tokman and Angelo Kyrilov, both UC Merced professors, opened the doors of Kids Discovery Station, they have seen more than 65,000 visitors. After successful pilot exhibits in 2018 at the...

Training Ph.D. Candidates for Peer Support Roles

August 1, 2024

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...