Awards

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

December 18, 2025

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.

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 fellowships are designed to provide students with funding to conduct research on water and health. Opoku...

Professor Emeritus Mark Aldenderfer Honored with Dickson Chair

Esteemed anthropologist and archaeologist Professor Mark Aldenderfer, who retired this month from UC Merced, has been awarded the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship Endowed Chair, the university...

Three Awarded UC Pre-Professoriate Fellowships

UC Merced graduate students Anabel Castillo, Veronica Lerma and Sammy Villa are recipients of the University of California’s inaugural President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF)....

Professor and Falasco Chair Berhe Recognized as a Carnegie Corporation Distinguished Immigrant

Every Fourth of July, the Carnegie Corporation of New York honors the legacy of its founder Andrew Carnegie, by recognizing an extraordinary group of immigrants, who are now naturalized American...

UC Merced Wins Best Practice Awards for Sustainability Efforts

UC Merced is the only campus to win three best practice awards in the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference ’s 2020 energy and sustainability competition. The annual...

Prestigious Award Recognizes Wang’s Work in Materials Science

UC Merced Professor Yue “Jessica” Wang has been named one of 10 winners of the 2020 Beckman Young Investigator Award, which recognizes promising researchers in chemical and life...

Innovate to Grow Awards 10 Winners from Virtual Expo

Despite the challenges of making an in-person event into a remote one, students in this year’s Innovate to Grow spring showcase displayed the determination, passion and innovation Bobcats are...

Internet of Things and Autonomous Retail Research Win Awards for Professor, Students

The number of everyday smart devices, such as Nest and Samsung SmartThings, is projected to grow to the billions in the coming decade. Professor Shijia Pan and her students work to quantify the...

Graduate student Boe Mendewala is UC Merced's 2020 Grad Slam champion.

Physics Ph.D. Student Named Grad Slam Campus Champion

UC Merced’s Graduate Division wrapped up its annual Grad Slam competition this week, announcing Physics doctoral candidate Boe Mendewala as its campus champion. The judges awarded two...

The Beginnings sculpture on the UC Merced campus.

Six Students and Two Community Service Organizations Awarded University Friends Circle Scholarships

University Friends Circle (UFC) supports the mission of UC Merced and one way the group does that directly is by supporting students. Each year, UFC members raise money to fund scholarships for...