Faculty

For the First Time, All Avian Evolutionary Relationships Revealed Through Collaboration

April 29, 2025

Professor Emily Jane McTavish and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have mapped the evolution of every known bird species. They created a complete evolutionary tree of bird species by combining data on 9,239 species published in nearly 300 studies between 1990 and 2024 and...

Ph.D. Student Named an American Farmland Trust Research Fellow

Fourth year Environmental Systems Ph.D. student Elena Bischak has been named a research fellow by the American Farmland Trust (AFT). The AFT Research Fellows Program aims to “empower the...

Professor Rebecca Ryals and her students study soil organic amendments.

Ryals’ Teaching, Research and Service Earns Her Presidential Chair in Climate Change

Professor Rebecca Ryals has made campus history by being named UC Merced’s inaugural Presidential Chair in Climate Change. The appointment was recommended by her peers and Dean Betsy Dumont...

Field researcher at California's tidal pools.

Research Week Highlights Solutions to Urgent Environmental Issues

It's time for the campus and the community to celebrate UC Merced’s high-level research during Research Week, March 6 through 10. The annual research showcase, hosted by the Office of...

Study Finds Childhood Exposure to Weed Killer May Increase Risk of Disease in Young Adulthood

Children who are exposed to glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide worldwide, may suffer from liver inflammation and metabolic disorder in early adulthood, according to a new study by a team that...

Laurels for the director's choice award at the Thomas Edison Film Festival

Award-winning Films Connecting ‘Unseen’ Communities Around the World

Global Arts Studies Professor Yehuda Sharim ’s film “El Ojo Comienza en la Mano,” a documentary about a Central Valley farm worker who never gave up his love of painting, has been...

Eaton's Research on Student Debt Highlighted in New York Review of Books Article

Sociology Professor Charlie Eaton's study of the relationships between financialization (the growing importance of financial markets, organizations and ideas) and growing inequalities in...

Berhe Chosen for National Academy Membership in Recognition of Her Soil Research

Soil biogeochemistry Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe — who is on leave from UC Merced while she serves as federal director of the Office of Science for the Department of Energy — has...

Wilson Selected as a 2023 American Astronomical Society Fellow

Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2023 American Astronomical Society (AAS) Fellow — the preeminent organization of professional...

Professor Suzanne Sindi, left, Nitesh Kumar and Professor Roummel Marcia

Alumni Success Celebrated at Inaugural Math Event

The Department of Applied Mathematics, the Applied Mathematics Graduate Program and the student chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) celebrated their many...