Lorena Anderson

Astronomers Reveal Hidden Activity in the Early Universe’s Most Massive Galaxies

January 5, 2026

Spectroscopy at the UC's W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii helped the researchers interpret complex data about ultramassive galaxies. Photo courtesy of the W.M. Keck Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has studied ultramassive galaxies - galaxies containing more than 100 billion stars - as they existed when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. The results show that while some of these ultramassive galaxies, or UMGs, had already shut down star...

Researchers Delve into Valley Fever from All Angles

Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of UC Merced Magazine. Before it infects humans who breathe it in, the fungus that causes valley fever changes shapes in the environment....

NIH Supports Professor’s Work in Inhibiting HIV Infection

Biochemistry Professor Patricia LiWang calls it a stroke of luck that she has become enmeshed in HIV research, but her developments are no accident. The National Institute for Health (NIH) apparently...

Researching the Hows and Whys of Politics

Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of UC Merced Magazine and has been updated in the wake of the Nov. 4 elections. Read the whole issue online. In two small rooms on the...

Professor’s Soil Research Digs Up Many More Questions

When people get near California’s giant sequoias, they usually look up. But Professor Steve Hart looks down, and what he finds beneath the trees has intrigued him. The trees, some of which could...

Campus, Community Programs Join to Prevent Obesity in Families

In an effort to combat the increasing rates of obesity among Latino residents, the University of California, Merced and the Merced County Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program will...

Professor’s Research to Examine Whether Copper Plays Role in Alzheimer’s Disease

Professor Masashi Kitazawa wants to figure out if any environmental factors increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease – specifically, whether elevated levels of copper in drinking water...

Nobel Laureate Offers Chemistry Seminar

Professor K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research Institute and the 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, will offer a chemistry seminar at UC Merced at 3 p.m. Friday in COB 120. His pioneering...

Solar Power Purchase Positions Campus for Total Renewable Energy Use

The University of California, Merced, will get 75 percent of its power from renewable sources by the end of 2016, and is on its way to being 100 percent renewably powered by then. The University of...

UC Merced Wins Innovation Grant from Small Business Development Center Regional Network

UC Merced’s Small Business Development Center Regional Network is the only entity in the state, and only one of 22 in the nation, to win a Federal and State Technology (FAST) grant from the U.S....