News

UC Merced students and Rufus mascot at Beginnings sculpture during Scholars Bridge Crossing
August 25, 2026
A smiling throng of new faces took part Tuesday in one of UC Merced’s oldest traditions, the Scholars Bridge Crossing. Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz and other campus leaders led the march over the bridge. Blue and gold balloons arced over the span, which was lined with cheering staff, faculty and...
Postdoctoral researcher Dilawer Ali is seen sitting next to lab equipment at UC Merced.
August 19, 2026
Imagine driving down a road in an electric vehicle with no charging stations in sight. Do you want only an estimate of how many more miles your car can go before the battery dies? As electric vehicles proliferate throughout much of the world, it's never been more important to know precisely how...
UC Merced farmland
August 18, 2026
UC Merced researchers are launching a project that could change how Central Valley growers harness the sun’s energy, using a family of light-active molecules developed at the university to design smarter agricultural greenhouses. The Central Valley grows a significant share of the nation’s food but...
UC Merced graduate student ​Shariful Islam and Sean Dunfield of Tandem PV install a solar panel atop the SE2 building on campus.
August 10, 2026
UC Merced is no stranger to solar panels. The campus, built to be sustainable from the beginning, is home to thousands of them, and they provide a good chunk of the electricity that powers the university. But one very special panel was recently installed on the top of the Science and Engineering...
Mugshots of Mohammad Maharlooei and Lauren Hale are imposed over a photo of the Beginnings statue on the UC Merced campus.
August 5, 2026
Two UC Merced-affiliated scientists have joined University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Lauren Hale, a soil microbiologist in UC Merced's Department Life and Environmental Sciences, and Mohammad Maharlooei, an assistant professor of UC Cooperative Extension in agricultural waste...
A landscape of burned-out trees near Lake Almanor in October 2025.
August 4, 2026
Wildfire is reshaping the forests of California's Sierra Nevada and affecting the water those forests supply to downstream users. A paper published in Hydrology and Earth System Science reports that the effect of wildfire on potential runoff from the state's main water-supply watersheds has...
Bobcat Bound graphic with headshot of Shrihan Lakinana
August 3, 2026
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2026 semester. Incoming UC Merced student Shrihan Lakinana is bringing a growth mindset, a passion for engineering and a deep appreciation for community to the Bobcat experience. Lakinana says his proudest...
collage of three graduate students: Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Vanessa Sanchez and Nora Shamoon
July 28, 2026
UC Merced doctoral students Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Vanessa Sanchez and Nora Shamoon have been awarded the 2026-2027 UC President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship, a University of California Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative award that supports promising scholars from...
David Miguel
July 23, 2026
When first-generation mechanical engineering student David Miguel arrived at UC Merced, he had no research experience, but a passion for engineering and a desire to learn. A former foster care youth from Los Angeles, Miguel had limited resources to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (...

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