News

Emergence, Extinction of Massive Ancient Shark to be Explored with NSF Grant

October 1, 2018

Forty million years after dinosaurs went extinct, one of the largest predators that ever prowled Earth’s oceans emerged, feeding the imaginations of modern scientists and the nightmares of modern movie audiences. Megalodon — the name means ‘giant tooth’ — appeared some 23 million years ago and...

UC Merced Professors Honored for Work with First-Generation Students

September 24, 2018

UC Merced psychology Professor Anna Song and biology Professor Jennifer Manilay had a special dinner with UC President Janet Napolitano at her Oakland home recently to honor the faculty members for their work on first-generation student initiatives. All faculty in attendance, including Song and...

Campus Awards Chancellor’s Postdoc Fellowships

September 19, 2018

Two of UC Merced’s newest postdoctoral researchers, Colleen Cheverko and Maria-Elena Young, received the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (CPFP) for 2018-2019. The fellowships, which are for one year with a potential one-year renewal, provide professional development and faculty mentoring to...

Professor’s Novel Mercury-Mapping Project Wins State Grant

September 19, 2018

Civil and environmental engineering Professor Erin Hestir’s proposal for a unique system of mapping mercury in the waters of the San Francisco Delta has won her and her team of collaborators a $1.7 million grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The CDFW is dividing up...

NSF Grant Helps Professor Connect Evolutionary Dots along the Open Tree of Life

September 18, 2018

UC Merced life and environmental sciences Professor Emily Jane McTavish and a collaborator at the University of Kansas recently received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to extend and improve the Open Tree of Life (OpenTree). OpenTree is a collaborative project...

Postdoc Earns Prestigious NIH Award to Study Health Disparities

September 17, 2018

Jaapna Dhillon had no idea that studying how almonds affect health would win her a huge advantage in securing a tenure-track position. But Dhillon just became UC Merced’s first postdoctoral researcher to receive a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The K99/...

Frustration and Compromise in Flocking Cells Produce New Migration Patterns

September 12, 2018

Even if some members of a goal-driven group don’t seem to work well with others — even if the whole group is extremely frustrated — the group can still compromise and find new ways to produce a successful outcome. This sounds like a political allegory, but it’s actually a novel finding about...

UC Climate-Change Research is One Focus of Global Summit, New Reports

September 11, 2018

California aims to lead the nation — and the globe — in climate change research, policy and action — in large part through climate-focused research conducted at University of California campuses and labs. Some of that research, including from UC Merced, will be on display this week as climate-...

$2.5M Grant Will Help Professor to Build a Powerful Molecular Imaging Scanner

September 5, 2018

Bioengineering Professor Changqing Li was recently awarded a four-year, $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help develop a focused X-ray luminescence tomography (FXLT) scanner that could accelerate cancer research. The scanner is a first-of-its kind molecular...

Understanding Why Designs Work — or Don’t — is Important

September 4, 2018

Just because a design works once doesn’t mean that the research and development is done. That’s why, Professor Sarah Kurtz argues in a new commentary in the prestigious journal Nature Energy , it’s important to do the quality assurance science that shows why products sometimes don’t work. “If...