Campus Community

Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing

August 26, 2025

Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats. The ceremony embraced about 2,000...

Summer Research Takes UC Merced Around the Globe

Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean research at UC Merced comes to a halt. Just the opposite. This summer, professors and students at all levels are conducting a variety of research projects on...

Professor Continues to Focus on Efficient Solvent Usage

In a move that will save the campus money, improve campus safety and help save the environment, Professor Jason Hein set up a new solvent purification system. This project is similar to his previous...

Interactive Tour Provides Unique View of Campus

The best way to explore what UC Merced has to offer is to visit the campus and see it firsthand. However, for prospective students and their family members who can’t make the trip, there is a new...

Professor’s Fellowship Takes Her Into the Halls of Power

Like many faculty members, Professor Katrina Hoyer is busy running a lab, teaching and researching. This year, she adds another item to her to-do list – learning how public policy is implemented and...

Founding Faculty Member Honored with NSF Grant for Excellence

A five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation is helping Professor Alberto Cerpa develop the next big breakthrough in wireless sensor networks – an autonomous, self-learning system...

Grad Student’s Farmland Mapping Project Gets Prestigious Publisher

Working to map every square inch, UC Merced master’s student Andrew Zumkehr found there are 111 million acres of abandoned farmland in the United States. That’s a lot of space for growing biofuels...

Undergraduates Win Coveted APS Summer Research Fellowships

Two UC Merced undergraduates will spend the summer immersed in research after winning prestigious fellowships from the American Physiological Society. Sophomores Debby Lee and Meagan Moreno competed...

Professor’s Work Earns Her a Spot in Prestigious Journal

Using some of the tiniest fossils in the world to help clarify how climate change is modeled has earned Professor Jessica Blois a big honor – publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Anthropology Lab Gives Students a Tactile Edge

With a growing collection of artifacts and replicas, UC Merced’s anthropology teaching laboratory gives students the ability to hold history in their hands. Students taking anthropology courses are...