Engineering

Professor and Environmental Champion Bales Retires, But Research and Advocacy Continue

November 10, 2025

Professors Roger Bales and Martha Conklin arrived in Merced in 2003, the first non-administrative faculty members at UC Merced. They came with a vision: to create a research university that would serve California’s future. Now, after more than 22 years of building institutions, mentoring...

Researcher’s Work Shows History Doesn’t Indicate the Future of Climate Change

Shakespeare might have been right when he wrote “what’s past is prologue,” but not when it comes to modeling climate change. A new study shows that rising air temperatures could have a crippling...

Student Team Makes the Cut in Global ‘Hyperloop’ Competition

A small team of undergraduate students from UC Merced is gaining major exposure in a global competition to design portions of what could be the next big innovation in transportation. Elon Musk, the...

Spatial Analysis Center Expands Training, Research Tools

UC Merced’s innovative Spatial Analysis and Research Center is mapping the next chapter in its development with a new faculty co-director and efforts to show imaginative uses for geographic...

Donor Match Will Quadruple #GivingTuesday Gifts

The season of giving is just around the corner, and UC Merced is getting in the spirit. On Dec. 1, the campus will participate in #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. All around the...

Gasification Projects Could Benefit the Environment, Economy

Two overlapping research projects involving UC Merced professors could have big implications for the region’s economy and effects on renewable energy, water and wildfires. Professor Gerardo Diaz,...

Engineering Professor and Students Team Up with Chevron

Professor Ashlie Martini is one of only a few university researchers in the country who work on tribology — the study of friction, lubrication and wear. Her work and her willingness to develop...

Three Students Awarded Global Food Initiative Fellowships

The University of California has selected its second class of Global Food Initiative (GFI) fellows — including three students from UC Merced — who will work on projects ranging from food access to...

UC Merced Water Research Earns Share of $50 Million Grant

The University of California, Merced, just became part of a massive, five-year, multi-million-dollar international research consortium that tackles water-related aspects of energy production and use...

Professor’s Invention Helps Scientists Win Nobel Prize

Professor Roland Winston has been tracking the Sudbury Neutrino Experiment since it began in the 1980s, because he invented the light collectors the scientists built to detect solar neutrinos. “I...