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...

Psychological Sciences Grad Group Provides Diverse Research Opportunities

Graduate students Kristynn Sullivan and Chris Fradkin took distinctly different routes to UC Merced. Sullivan left northern Virginia for the University of California’s newest campus after...

Research Week Highlights Cutting-Edge Work

Researchers at the university in your backyard are delving into issues of great importance to the San Joaquin Valley, the state, the nation and the world. You can learn more about their work at the...

Graduate Student Bringing UC Merced to Western Pacific

Graduate student Sharon Patris likes spending time at a lake in the middle of the forest on an uninhabited island in the western Pacific. The marine lake named Ongiem’l Tketau and informally known as...

Professor’s Paper, Among Year’s Best, Shows Dramatic Effects of Mountaintop Mining on Climate

UC Merced School of Engineering Professor Elliott Campbell has co-authored a paper showing that mountaintop removal mining will dramatically accelerate the regional effects of global warming by...

Professor’s Design Could Win $50,000 Grant

A UC Merced professor is one of five finalists in an international challenge that could win him a $50,000 research grant and free access to a record-setting, ocean-going robot. Professor Michael...

UC Merced’s Sustainability Practices Include the Whole Campus Community

Sometimes, what goes on behind the scenes is as important as what happens in full view – especially when it comes to UC Merced’s pledge to uphold and develop new sustainable practices. All across...

UC Merced Honors PG&E with Inaugural Vanguard Award

MERCED, Calif. — UC Merced honored the Pacific Gas and Electric Company with the School of Engineering’s inaugural Vanguard Award today with a special ceremony to thank the company for all it has...

New Energy Manager’s Big Plans Require Small Steps

As UC Merced’s new energy manager, it’s Varick Erickson’s job to watch every kilowatt hour used on campus and identify ways to save them. “It’s a lot like rummaging around in the couch and looking...

Russian Student Gives U.S. a Second Chance, Finds Niche at UC Merced

Vadim Gassiy was in eighth grade when his mother encouraged him to leave Russia for a taste of American life, culture and education. But the small town of Niceville, Fla. proved too sharp a contrast...