News

Leafhopper Insects Enlighten Researchers About Complex Bacterial Relationships

December 5, 2018

All complex life evolves in alliance with, in defense of or in reaction to bacteria. A new paper by UC Merced Professor Gordon Bennett demonstrates one of the novel ways the relationship can evolve and begins to repaint a picture that humans have only begun to understand. Bennett’s research,...

Environmental Engineers Devising Plan to Save Humanity

December 3, 2018

The Earth is changing, and humans face major challenges if they hope to adapt, survive and preserve any semblance of the world as it is now. Humans will need to create sustainable food, water and energy supplies; curb climate change; eliminate pollution and waste; and design efficient, healthy and...

Researcher Takes First Step Toward Improved Diagnosis for Valley Fever

November 28, 2018

Clinicians searching for a new way to identify Valley fever patients who will develop the disease’s worst symptoms will find hope in a new paper by UC Merced Professor Katrina Hoyer . A research project led by Hoyer and former UC Merced researcher Dan Davini, in collaboration with Madera’s Valley...

Anthropology Book Examines Early California and its Native Communities

November 16, 2018

A new book co-edited by Professor Kathleen Hull highlights nine studies exploring how Native people retained or reimagined their communities in California between 1769 and 1834. “Forging Communities in Colonial Alta California” was published by the University of Arizona Press and co-edited by...

Graduate Student Spends Summer as GEM Fellow at Idaho National Lab

November 14, 2018

As a graduate student at UC Merced, Jordan Galloway looks for ways to push himself forward and lead by example. The third-year Chemistry and Chemical Biology student forged a new path last summer through a fellowship in the nuclear science and technology division of Idaho National Laboratory. “It...

New Consortium Seeks to Expose Students to a Galaxy of Opportunities

November 13, 2018

Imagine exploring the cores of stars to understand — and ultimately control — the type of fusion that’s taking place. High-energy density (HED) science is the study of properties and behavior of matter and radiation in extreme temperatures and pressures common to the deep interiors of the largest...

Ancient Genomes from the Andes Highlands Reveal Novel Adaptations

November 8, 2018

The genomes of ancient Andean settlers reveal a complex picture of human adaptation, including when they became able to digest starches and how evolutionary modifications allowed them to live at such high altitudes. A new paper co-authored by UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer illuminates the...

Psychologists Look to Partner with Merced Babies, Moms for National Study

October 30, 2018

Psychology Professor Eric Walle ’s Interpersonal Development Lab will recruit local infants and mothers as an important and unique part of a large-scale study focusing on the development of young children. Led by scientists at New York University and Pennsylvania State University, the Play and...

NSF Grant Unites Four Hispanic-Serving Institutions to Help Diversify STEM Faculty

October 24, 2018

UC Merced is partnering with UC Santa Barbara and two California State University campuses — Fresno and Channel Islands — on a project to create a more diverse STEM faculty at colleges and universities nationwide. The quartet has been awarded a total of $2 million from the National Science...

$10M Grant Will Help Increase Hispanics in Computing

October 18, 2018

UC Merced is part of a consortium of more than 40 institutions and organizations from the public and private sectors at the forefront of a national effort to increase the number of Hispanic students who participate in computing. The National Science Foundation’s Inclusion across the Nation of...