Research

September 9, 2026

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman takes a photo with UC Merced students Rayan Dua and Samir Ahmed.
It might seem that an airfield filled with old planes is a strange place to talk about the future of space flight. But Jared Isaacman, the administrator of NASA, said the Castle Air Museum was the perfect setting to talk about what's ahead. Isaacman visited the former Air Force base...
Mural artist William Paulson addresses event attendees behind a podium
"These works are a tribute to nature, to culture, and to time itself."  That's how UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz described "Four Seasons of Yosemite" during...
Postdoctoral researcher Dilawer Ali is seen sitting next to lab equipment at UC Merced.
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...
Closeup of stone marker for townsite of Gold Rush town Agua Fria
Digging for stories in a Gold Rush town that vanished in flames 170 years ago. Pinging brainwaves for reactions from sentences that slide between Spanish and English. Fortifying students’...
UC Merced graduate student ​Shariful Islam and Sean Dunfield of Tandem PV install a solar panel atop the SE2 building on campus.
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...
Students and Professor Ross Greer are pictured in his lab, holding a small car with a processor affixed to the top of it.
Step into Ross Greer’s lab — gingerly, because there’s a makeshift racetrack on the floor — and you will see multiple projects aimed at making autonomous vehicles smarter...
UC Merced researchers extract sewage samples from university system
Key points: Researchers successfully tested a technique that uses human sewage to measure the use of nicotine products such as cigarettes and vaping pens in a selected community....
UC Merced faculty band G Street Revolution performing
An all-faculty rock band formed in a professor’s garage a decade ago has released the first album produced at UC Merced’s digitally advanced recording studio. The album showcases the...
Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and 'Groundswell' co-Director Joshua Tickell
A leading expert in soil biogeochemistry and environmental engineering, UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, brings her research and perspective to a global conversation about the future of our...
Depicted is the UC Merced campus in the foreground, with smoke from a distant wildfire seen behind it on a blue sky.
Key points: • Researchers found that heat waves are a critical enabler and driver of wildfire-burned areas across the western U.S. • The findings suggest that heat waves...

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