Faculty

From Soil to Climate Solutions: Berhe Leads Sierra Nevada Research Institute into its Next Chapter

September 11, 2025

When Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe arrived at UC Merced in 2009, she and her husband, Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei, were leaving major research institutions to join a brand-new campus in California’s Central Valley. It was a leap of faith — one made easier by the Sierra Nevada Research...

A women in a blue lab coat wearing a blue latex glove holds a microscope slide up to the camera.

Grad Student Discovers, Patents Process to Create “Nanofoams” in Liquid Crystals

It sounds like an easy-to-follow recipe from the world of molecular gastronomy: Dissolve nanoparticles in liquid crystals and cool to form frothy nanofoams, tiny tubes and hollow microspheres. But...

I Am a UC Engineer: Alumni Jeffrey Aceves

Jeffrey Aceves is an excellent student. Always has been. He graduated high school with a 4.3 GPA and an Eagle Scout ranking. He graduated from UC Merced in 3 ½ years, having come to the campus...

Several UC Merced professors will research how biochar can help reduce methane emissions from manure on dairies.

Researchers Hope to Tackle Methane Emissions in Manure Through Use of Biochar

You can smell them a mile away; there’s no mistaking the smell of cows and their methane emissions. The odor, of course, comes from tons of methane-spewing manure. Thanks to a multimillion-...

From left: UC Merced senior Fisher Dietz, Professor Jeff Jenkins and Director of Cyberinfrastructure and Research Computing Jeff Weekley observe Jenkins’ repeat photography research using the WAVE.

The Future of Heritage and Cultures

Technological advancements and a shift to interdisciplinary research have changed the way researchers can look at the past to help inform the future. Find out how UC Merced is helping to lead the...

New Project to Build Climate Resilience through Improved Land Management

A $4.6 million grant to UCs Merced and Irvine will help researchers develop new tools and methods for better managing the state’s forests, shrub lands and grasslands. The Innovation Center...

EECS Ph.D. Student Wins Facebook Fellowship

UC Merced Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate student Yijun Li was recently selected as a 2019 Facebook Fellowship winner. The Facebook Fellowship program is designed to support...

Next Generations Building Next-Level Electronics

Imagine a cell phone you can fold up and carry in your wallet. When you drop it, nothing cracks or breaks, or if it does, it repairs itself. And when it’s time for an upgrade, the old phone...

Graduate student Warren Nanney was awarded a three-year NASA fellowship to continue his research engineering portable biosensors for health monitoring in space.

NASA Fellowship Lifts Grad Student’s Cardiac Biosensor Research

Warren Nanney, who’s pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology, received a three-year NASA fellowship that’s creating a unique opportunity for him to develop biosensors that...

Alumna Tessa Provins's time at UC Merced not only informed but inspired her passion to always keep growing in the political science field.

Merced Native and Ph.D. Grad Lands Faculty Position at Pitt

For Merced native Tessa Provins, the opportunity to attend UC Merced for her graduate education was a chance to come home again — but it wasn’t simply the familiar location that drew her...