Faculty

UC Merced Graduate Student Secures Fellowship in Climate Equity Work

June 8, 2026

When Isabelle Haddad, a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Systems, looks ahead to the next chapter, her future is already coming into focus. The New York native participated in commencement in May and will defend her dissertation in August. She will then begin a one-year, full-time position on...

Professor Clarissa Nobile investigates the mechanisms of biofilm infections that affect human health.

NIH Grant Enables Outstanding Investigator to Advance Knowledge of Microbial Infections

The National Institutes of Health are backing Professor Clarissa Nobile ’s mission to understand the mechanisms by which microbes form biofilms, specifically those that can be hazardous to...

Hurricane Bud left some surprising changes in its wake, UC Merced researchers found.

Hurricanes Create Powerful Changes Deep in the Ocean, Study Reveals

With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico. The team was able to...

Two UC Merced graduate students wearing blue

Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship...

The Central Valley is a major contributor to a growing dust problem, in large part because of agriculture, researchers say.

Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland

An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and...

UC Merced Graduates Encouraged to Embrace Every Moment

With cheers, hugs and leis, more than 1,500 UC Merced graduates received a celebratory sendoff to their bright futures as a prominent keynote speaker told them to make the most of the here and now...

A dust storm rises near Owens Lake. Photo Courtesy of UC San Diego

Dust is a Danger to Central Valley Health and Will Likely Get Worse, Researchers Find

People don't think about dust much until it's time to clean the house, but a new report by UC researchers could raise awareness of the growing threat of dust and dust storms. Dust affects...

NSF Award Supports Young Faculty Member’s Research into Building Blocks of the Universe

Cosmology Professor Anna Nierenberg has received a CAREER award for a project that will vastly improve the study of the nature of dark matter in the universe. She is the 42nd researcher from UC...

Sociology Graduate Program Debuts Strongly in U.S. News Rankings

Only 10 years after it began, the Ph.D. program in UC Merced’s Department of Sociology made an impressive debut in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings of graduate-level...

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

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...