Awards

UC Merced Graduate Student Secures Fellowship in Climate Equity Work

June 8, 2026

When Isabelle Haddad, a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Systems, looks ahead to the next chapter, her future is already coming into focus. The New York native participated in commencement in May and will defend her dissertation in August. She will then begin a one-year, full-time position on...

A graduate student eagerly anticipates her hooding ceremony.

Degrees, Cheers and a Record Number of Graduates Under the Open Sky

UC Merced is abuzz with celebration as students, families, friends, staff and faculty finish last-minute preparations for the largest commencement in university history. Across three outdoor...

Quantitative and Systems Biology Ph.D. student Tahirah Williams

UC Merced’s Grad Slam Champion Explores Mucus-Fungus Battle Behind Valley Fever

Nervous but prepared, Tahirah Williams took the stage at UC Merced’s Grad Slam competition in March and delivered her three-minute talk, “More Than Slime: When Mucus Meets the Valley...

The sign reads University of California, Merced

Two UC Merced Researchers Among This Year’s AAAS Fellows

Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and...

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sanchez Munoz and Governor Gray Davis pose with the Chancellor's Medal

Former Gov. Gray Davis Awarded Chancellor’s Medal for Transformative Leadership in Bringing UC Merced to the Central Valley

At an intimate gathering of supporters, UC Merced awarded former Gov. Gray Davis the Chancellor’s Medal — the university’s highest honor — in recognition of his instrumental...

Leadership in STEM: Abigail Gyamfi Honored with 2025 ACS Leader Scholars Award

Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) Ph.D. candidate Abigail Gyamfi has earned the 2025 American Chemical Society Leader Scholars Award. The ACS Leader Scholars program recognizes outstanding...

graphic with five individuals higlighted; three females and two males with UC Merced and ARCS logos on blue background

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to...

collage of photo with yellow text on a blue background reading Carnegie Elective Reclassification for Community Engagement

The American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation Recognize UC Merced's Leadership in Community Engagement

UC Merced has once again been recognized as a national leader in community-engaged scholarship. The 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement affirms the university’s...

Collage photo of Black male with dark hair and beard wearing blue and gray long sleeve shirt and photo of campus signage and palm trees.

Ph.D. Student Awarded Fellowship to Advance Environmental Health and Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigation

Public health Ph.D. student Felix Agyemang Opoku has been awarded the UC Global Health Initiative Center for Planetary Health Water and Health Summer Research Fellowship. The research...

Female with brown hair in cream turtle neck top in front of building

Doctoral Student Secures New Fellowships to Support Computational Modeling Research

Physics Ph.D. candidate Arabi Seshappan added two prestigious fellowships to her curriculum vitae: the Chateaubriand Fellowship in Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics & Biology-Health...