News

Researchers Use Monkey Flower to Study Climate Change

August 20, 2019

California’s drought was hard not to notice — the dry lawns, fallowed fields and hot temperatures were evident across the state. To better understand how the drought affected the natural ecosystem in which we live, biology Professor Jason Sexton and his graduate students conducted a study on a...

UC Merced Unveils Second Phase of Merced 2020 Project, Says Thank You to Leland

August 19, 2019

Two simple words, “Leland Legacy,” captured the significance of Wednesday’s opening event for the second phase of the Merced 2020 Project, an event that doubled as a goodbye and thank you to outgoing Chancellor Dorothy Leland. The message graced a wall of the new Sustainability Research and...

Media Creates False Balance on Climate Science, Study Shows

August 13, 2019

The American media lends too much weight to people who dismiss climate change, giving them legitimacy they haven’t earned, posing serious danger to efforts aimed at raising public awareness and motivating rapid action, a new study shows. While it is not uncommon for media outlets to interview...

Humanities Grad Students Drive Community Engagement, Public Understanding Through Research

August 8, 2019

Since his undergraduate days in Environmental Studies at Humboldt State University, Ivan Soto has aspired to produce research with a positive impact on the public — not just to benefit the academic community. As a doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Humanities at UC Merced, Soto is doing just...

UC Merced Cultivates More Ag-Food-Tech Expertise with New CITRIS Hire

July 31, 2019

Leigh Bernacchi, Ph.D., has officially joined UC Merced’s Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and Banatao Institute as the program director. “Leigh has worked at the intersection of ag and water for several years and will provide valuable support for CITRIS in...

Founding Professor Named Associate Dean of Natural Sciences

July 26, 2019

The School of Natural Sciences has a new associate dean for Academic Programs, founding faculty member Professor Michael Colvin. “With his experience as a researcher and administrator, his dedication to student success and his deep knowledge of the School, Professor Colvin is particularly well...

Undergrad Discovers Triceratops Skull on Paleontology Dig in North Dakota

July 24, 2019

Harrison Duran has always wanted to discover ‘the land before time,’ and his desire to dig up dinosaur bones led him to the Badlands of North Dakota, where Alice the Triceratops was waiting for him. Duran is a fifth-year biology student with an emphasis in ecology and evolutionary biology. A...

New Program Offers Veterans a Way to Realign with Civilian Life

July 18, 2019

One of the pillars of UC Merced is service and giving back to the community. Now the university, Yosemite National Park and partners in the region are offering a new program to help a group of people who gave back in advance — those who served in the military and now qualify for GI Bill benefits....

Biochemistry Researcher Named to NIH Review Board

July 18, 2019

Professor Andy LiWang has accepted an appointment to the National Institutes of Health’s Macromolecular Structure and Function B (MSFB) Study Section Center for Scientific Review. Over his four-year term, LiWang will be a member of the group that reviews grant applications submitted to the NIH,...

Public Health Ph.D. Student Earns Fellowship to Study Health Equity

July 16, 2019

Fourth-year Public Health doctoral student Tashelle Wright won UC Merced’s first Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) Predoctoral Fellowship to examine tobacco use and oral health diseases among Black, Latinx, aging and rural populations in the San Joaquin Valley. As a TRDRP fellow,...