News

Sliding on Waves of Atoms: Lab Is First to Observe Ripples and Friction on 2D Materials

November 5, 2020

Mechanical Engineering Professor Mehmet Baykara’s latest discovery in two-dimensional (2D) materials will have implications for future space missions, as well as nanotechnology on Earth. Since the Nobel prize-winning discovery of 2D materials in 2004, scientists have believed the crystalline...

New Precision Ag Project Would Help Farmers Measure Plant Moisture

November 2, 2020

One of the biggest challenges in managing crops, especially in large fields, is knowing how much water each section of a field needs. Determining that accurately is a cumbersome process that requires people to hand-pluck individual leaves from plants, put them in pressure chambers and apply air...

Researchers Seek to Understand Messy Proteins

October 27, 2020

Biophysical chemistry Professor Shahar Sukenik and the graduate students in his lab are trying to make sense out of what might seem to some to be chaos. They aim to better understand how a series of floppy, malleable proteins function — or malfunction — inside cells. The work has...

Grad Services Bolstered to Better Support Students Remotely

October 26, 2020

UC Merced’s Graduate Division provides many programs throughout the year to ensure students succeed academically, including faculty and peer mentoring programs, free tutoring, and social and well-being activities to help foster a sense of belonging and community. Given the unprecedented...

Public Health Professors Study COVID-19 Impact on Rural, Latinx Health

October 22, 2020

The coronavirus has impacted everyone in different ways and three public health professors are examining specifically how rural, Latinx communities in California have been affected in a new study funded by the University of California Office of the President. California deemed agriculture an...

Researchers Seek to Understand Messy Proteins that are Critical to Cellular Function

October 21, 2020

Students and faculty worked with a record number of schoolchildren from Merced, the Bay Area and southern California all the way to Washington, D.C., enriching their learning and increasing their interest in science, technology, engineering and math. About 1,550 K-12 students, teachers and...

Statewide Coalition Forming to Bring COVID Awareness to At-Risk Communities

October 20, 2020

A new coalition of universities and community partners across the state — including UC Merced —aims to address the COVID-19 pandemic in communities that are disproportionally affected. A $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19...

Hard Shells and Electrosensory Gels: Lab Makes Surprising Discovery

October 19, 2020

Molecular biology Professor Chris Amemiya and his former graduate student Molly Phillips have made a discovery that upends traditional ideas about a structural polysaccharide called chitin that is found in some fish. Over the course of their studies, they collected evidence that chitin — which...

EECS Student Named ‘Rising Star’ for Computer Vision Work

October 19, 2020

UC Merced doctoral student Xueting Li was selected to participate in Rising Stars 2020 Academic Career Workshop for Women in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, which will be hosted by UC Berkeley virtually Nov. 9-10. Rising Stars is an intensive workshop for female graduate students and...

With Fire Threatening, National Parks Turn to UC Merced for Help Preserving History

October 15, 2020

Ward Eldredge warily monitored the fire’s progress. As curator of the archives of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, he deliberated what would need to be done if the nearby Castle Fire continued its approach toward the parks’ headquarters. The air around Three Rivers grew thick with smoke...