Awards

UC Merced a National Finalist for Student Success Award

October 16, 2025

UC Merced, recognized nationwide for providing access to a world-class education and transforming young scholars’ lives, is a finalist for the inaugural Excellence in Student Success Award offered by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. UC Merced is among five...

New Algorithm Helps Machines Function More Like Brains

Every day, your brain completes millions of complicated functions without you even being aware of them, and it learns as it goes. Teaching a machine to do the same thing is extremely complicated, but...

Scholarship Helps UC Merced Senior Fulfill Dream of Studying Abroad

Lorraine Sturdevant always wanted to explore other countries, but finances were always an obstacle. But winning a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship allowed her to take her first...

UC Merced Senior Is New Leader, Advocate for UC’s 240,000 Students

Jefferson Kuoch-Seng is now the official voice for the University of California’s roughly 240,000 students — the first UC Merced student ever to serve in that role. In August, Kuoch-Seng was elected...

Study Looks at Emotion's Role in Chemotherapy Tolerance

How patients perceive and talk about their illnesses can have an impact on how they recover and heal, according to a growing area of health research being furthered by UC Merced health psychology...

Slain Civil Rights Activist to Receive Spendlove Prize

Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a civil rights activist who was killed by the Ku Klux Klan while driving another activist home from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in March 1965, has been named the...

Pine Needle Bacteria Earn Professor Second NSF Grant of the Year

Professor Carolin Frank will collect $1.6 million over the next four years to continue researching the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in pine needles and to work with the Sierra Foothill Charter...

Big-Data Project Nets Professor a Big Award

Professor Florin Rusu’s passion for analyzing voluminous amounts of data has won him a prestigious early-career award from the federal Department of Energy, making him the fifth of the nine eligible...

Southern California Edison Earns Engineering Vanguard Award

Southern California Edison has been selected as this year’s recipient of the UC Merced School of Engineering Vanguard Margin of Excellence Award. “Southern California Energy’s partnership with UC...

Senior Balances Athletics, Academics With Agility

Growing up in Bangkok, Surabordin Prachumsri knew what he wanted to do at an early age. Now in his final year at UC Merced, that hasn’t changed for the 22-year-old. “My mom is an anthropologist, and...