Environmental Research

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

January 14, 2026

graphic with five individuals higlighted; three females and two males with UC Merced and ARCS logos on blue background

The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to exceptional graduate-level scholars in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In...

Just How Hazardous is it to Live by a Freeway? UC Merced Researchers Issue Report for Fresno

When the city of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District wanted specifics about the impacts of truck traffic on the health of some of the city's most vulnerable residents...

Attendees look at posters of projects at the Internet of Things for Ag meeting at UC Merced.

National Ag Research Center Meets at UC Merced

Agriculture is in a time of daunting challenge: The world's population is growing and climate change is impacting every area of the food supply chain. Researchers from across the country who...

author Jorge Cham speaks to a group of graduate students during a visit to UC Merced.

Author Jorge Cham Simplifies Science in an Entertaining Way

“Raise your hands if you want to know a secret,” acclaimed author and cartoonist Jorge Cham instructed a crowd of young children. Hundreds of tiny arms shot up in unison toward the...

Students, Alums Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowships

Three UC Merced graduate students and two undergraduate alumni were recently offered fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). “I am...

Spotlight on Health Tech for Social Good at Hack Merced IX

The ninth installment of Hack Merced recently brought together 168 innovators focused on developing technology for the greater good. The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of...

A rendering of the new Field Education Center shows how it will provide shelter.

New Center Offers Opportunities to Observe and Learn about Natural Resources

Even though the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve (MVPGR) is adjacent to campus, it's an area that can be daunting to access. Last year, more than 2,000 people visited the...

An almond orchard with irrigation lines is pictured.

Water Risks to Agriculture: Too Little and Too Much

Water is among the most precious resources on the planet. Some areas don't get enough; some get too much. And climate change is driving both of those circumstances to ever-growing extremes....

Symposium attendees listen to Safeeq Khan, UC Merced associate adjunct professor and cooperative extension specialist in water and watershed sciences at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, present research with coauthors Max Eriksson and Roger Bales on stakeholder perspectives of multi-benefit forest management and ecosystem-service valuation in California.

2024 Sierra Nevada Science Symposium Convenes Sierra Researchers at UC Merced

The 2024 Sierra Nevada Science Symposium, hosted March 5-6 at University of California, Merced, brought together National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Geological Survey, National Forest, state, local...

An irrigation water delivery canal in the San Joaquin Valley of California,

An Invisible Water Surcharge: Climate Warming Increases Crop Water Demand in the San Joaquin Valley's Groundwater-Dependent Irrigated Agriculture

University of California researchers from the USDA-funded Secure Water Future project recently found that increases in crop water demand explain half of the cumulative deficits of the agricultural...