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Photo depicts a firefighter and flames from the 2020 Apple fire in California.

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains

May 5, 2025
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment. A new study by UC Merced researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the United States that year. How? With schools and businesses...
Professor Anna Nierenberg

NSF Award Supports Young Faculty Member’s Research into Building Blocks of the Universe

May 1, 2025
Cosmology Professor Anna Nierenberg has received a CAREER award for a project that will vastly improve the study of the nature of dark matter in the universe. She is the 42nd researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards are among the...
An avocet

For the First Time, All Avian Evolutionary Relationships Revealed Through Collaboration

April 29, 2025
Professor Emily Jane McTavish and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have mapped the evolution of every known bird species. They created a complete evolutionary tree of bird species by combining data on 9,239 species published in nearly 300 studies between 1990 and 2024 and additional...
Two Zachary Silva photos

UC Merced Student’s Photography Joins Exhibit of Young Valley Talent

April 29, 2025
Zachary Silva’s camera escorts us to extraordinary places. We see UC Merced from high above, the land around the campus warped by a fisheye lens. We look straight down a pole at a fluttering U.S. flag and two lonely tractors. These eye-popping points of view are among other photographs by Silva on...
Top nine Grad Slam finalists with graduate dean and associate graduate dean with R1 prop

Chemistry Ph.D. Student Wins Campus Grad Slam Top Prize, Advances to UC-wide Final

April 28, 2025
Adekunle “Kunle” Adewole isn’t a stranger to the spotlight, having grown up singing at family functions and performing in theater productions. He also has fervently watched “The Voice,” a singing reality competition television series, envisioning himself performing on stage. “’The Voice’ is part of...
Group of five female graduates at commencement

Carnegie Recognizes UC Merced for Student Access, Grad Earnings

April 28, 2025
UC Merced has earned two 2025 Carnegie distinctions, the Student Access and Earnings Classification “Opportunity Colleges and Universities” and the Institutional Classification by the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education. “It speaks to the mission and values we uphold as a...
Photo depicts a rendering of a drone flying above the heads of people below.

Team Advances In Aviation Prize Contest

April 25, 2025
A team of UC Merced students and their adviser has entered the second phase of the 2024-25 CITRIS Aviation Prize design contest. Students Yael Xavier Andujar, Monica Cruz Gaspar, Ana Hernandez, Kyra Ruiz, Randy Serrano and mechanical engineering Professor Francesco Danzi will compete against three...
Flames, the beach and the ocean are depicted in a scene from the January 2025 Palisades fire.

Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025

April 22, 2025
Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable. "There's a lot that we know, and a lot we don't know," he said. However, Abatzoglou said, some conclusions can be drawn...
Sameen Yunus, left, and her faculty advisor, physics Professor David Strubbe

Graduate Student Earns Fellowship to Study Fusion at Livermore Lab

April 16, 2025
UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting experiments and simulations that could lead to faster fusion ignition. The UC-National Lab In-Residence...

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