Environment

Study Urges New Approach to Energy Planning

April 12, 2024

An electric vehicle charger on the UC Merced campus is shown.

The world of energy is changing so quickly that the processes used for planning can’t keep up. UC Merced electrical engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz took part in a study that showed how swiftly the needs and resources for electricity are shifting. The study, “How Demand-Side...

Scientists collect vegetation data from the Cape Of Good Hope, Western Cape, South Africa. Photo by Adam M. Wilson

NASA-funded Biodiversity Research Project Launches in South Africa

Understanding and conserving biodiversity, or the variety of life in ecosystems, is key to sustaining life on Earth. A research project funded by NASA that is launching this week in South Africa,...

The annual Shakespeare in Yosemite production is just one avenue for environmental humanities students to get involved.

New Major Trains Students to Tell the Planet’s Urgent Stories

Compelling storytelling is vital to ensuring the action needed to secure a habitable planet for future generations, according to an increasing amount of research. UC Merced is recruiting students...

UC Merced's Experimental Smart Farm is shown.

Grants Fund Wide Variety of Climate Change Research Projects

UC Merced researchers will tackle climate changes in multiple ways through more than $4 million in grants recently awarded from within the university. The Office of Research and Economic...

Founding Faculty Member Martha Conklin Bids Farewell to Campus Community

Professor Martha Conklin started her career at UC Merced at the Castle Research Facility, and it began with a frightening surprise. “I had a baby rattlesnake in my office,” she said....

Planning for emergency evacuations using electric vehicles is the subject of one of the grants awarded to UC Merced.

University Awards over $80 million in State-funded Grants to Spur Climate Action

Four UC Merced researchers will share in the new California Climate Action Seed Grants and Matching Grants, which are the result of an historic partnership between the University of California and...

Student Kat Corti describes work being done at UC Merced's Experimental Smart Farm.

'Farming Data': UC Merced Students Spend Summer Working with Crops and Spreadsheets

For UC Merced students working to maintain the campus's Experimental Smart Farm this summer, the day's tasks can range from the high-tech to the grubby. Kat Corti and Austin Mercado,...

A rendering depicts what solar panels over canals will look like in Project Nexus.

UC Merced Researchers Describe Solar Over Canals Pilot Project

In an opinion piece published in today's Los Angeles Times, UC Merced researchers Brandi McKuin and Professor Roger Bales describe the work that led to the upcoming Project Nexus, a pilot...

Researcher Studies Effects of Dust on Climate Change

Being able to accurately predict how the climate will change in the future is one of the most important quests of our lifetimes. A key to better prediction is the fundamental understanding of how...

Professor Kim, left, stands between a model of a megalodon jaw and the jaw of a great white shark in a scene from "Jaws vs. The Meg," airing Sunday night.

Shark Week Highlights Researcher’s Megalodon Expertise

UC Merced 's resident expert on the nightmarishly massive megalodon will play a role in Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a celebration of the toothy creatures at the top of the oceanic food...

Research