News

Professor Tracey Osborne Taking on Complex, Grand Challenges in Climate and Social Justice

September 9, 2020

The world is a complex place, and humanity faces major challenges. Climate change mitigation might be the most difficult, in large part because of the interdependency of living things and their ecosystems. How do people transform economic systems so they are also sustainable for people and the...

Global Fire Outlook Not Good News, but Mitigation is Possible, Analysis Shows

September 3, 2020

Wildfire is a natural process necessary to many ecosystems. But wildfires are getting worse and more damaging, and it is our fault, according to new research. A paper by two UC Merced researchers and their colleagues, published in a new Nature journal called Nature Reviews Earth & Environment...

Alum Develops Device to Measure and Manipulate Invisible Force

September 2, 2020

As scientists build smaller and smaller machines, they need to understand the invisible forces that make those machines work. Thanks to research and the initiative of then-UC Merced graduate student Jake Pate, some of those forces can now be measured and manipulated. Pate, who graduated in May with...

New Grant More than Doubles Campus Supercomputing Power

August 31, 2020

UC Merced is rapidly gaining a strong reputation for research and scientific computing across many disciplines and a major expansion of its computing infrastructure is about to cement the campus’ status as a research computing hub. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is supplying $700,000 and the...

Public Health Ph.D. Student Wins CCAPW Scholarship

August 27, 2020

Shaina Santa Cruz, a graduate student in the Public Health Graduate Program, was awarded the Central California Asian Pacific Women (CCAPW) scholarship. The scholarship provides financial assistance to Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women pursuing higher education who are from Fresno, Kern, Kings...

Some Immune Cells Appear to ‘Know’ the Coronavirus, Even Though They’ve Never Met

August 20, 2020

Having had the common cold appears to have programmed some people’s immune cells to recognize the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That discovery — by an immunology team that includes a UC Merced alumnus — could change scientists’ understanding of the virus behind the current pandemic. Lorenzo...

New Project Shining a Light on Energy Storage

August 20, 2020

California’s leaders want the state to reach 100 percent clean energy in the future, including being 60 percent powered by renewable energy by 2030 and being free of fossil fuels entirely by 2045. But if the state wants power without fossil fuels, School of Engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz said...

‘From the Valley, For the Valley’: Local Students Start Training at UCSF to Become Physicians for the Region

August 19, 2020

The San Joaquin Valley has a shortage of doctors, but students such as Kyle Shen (’18) aim to change that by attending a tailored track at UCSF’s medical school specifically designed to address this problem. Shen is one of 12 recently admitted to the newest cohort of students in the UCSF San...

Precipitation and Drainage Fuel Large CO2 ‘Burps’ from Rainforest Soils, Study Finds

August 17, 2020

It is said that rainforests are the Earth’s lungs, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, building it into lush vegetation and releasing oxygen and water back into the air. But every time there’s a big rain, the rainforest soil emits a significant burst of that CO2, according to a new study...

Reforesting After Wildfires: Which Trees Are Most Likely to Thrive?

August 11, 2020

Wildfire seasons are intensifying because of climate change. That means reforestation efforts will increase, making it important for scientists and resource managers to understand how to make sure restorations will thrive in the future. Because changes in climate challenge forests’ stability and...