Graduate Students

May 13, 2026

A graduate student eagerly anticipates her hooding ceremony.
UC Merced is abuzz with celebration as students, families, friends, staff and faculty finish last-minute preparations for the largest commencement in university history. Across three outdoor ceremonies, 1,649 students will walk the stage at Spring Commencement 2026, marking a record-setting...
Collage of three headshots of Commencement keynote speakers
UC Merced will celebrate the Class of 2026 with three inspiring alumni returning to campus as keynote speakers for commencement ceremonies May 15-17. Emily Reed, ’07, ’13, a tenured...
UC Merced students have an expanding number of paths to internships, experiences and careers at national laboratories.
Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine. Omar DeGuchy remembers the moment he left the comfort of UC Merced — the place he’...
Avinav Biswas has been named a 2026 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.
Avinav Biswas, a third‑year undergraduate majoring in biological sciences at UC Merced, has been named a 2026 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, becoming the university’s first recipient of one of the...
Quantitative and Systems Biology Ph.D. student Tahirah Williams
Nervous but prepared, Tahirah Williams took the stage at UC Merced’s Grad Slam competition in March and delivered her three-minute talk, “More Than Slime: When Mucus Meets the Valley...
Two students and their professor in a UC Merced research lab.
UC Merced will host Research Week April 13-17, celebrating innovative work across campus and encouraging engagement in research among students, faculty and staff. The weeklong event allows the...
Top 100 Best Graduate Schools ranking, two students in a lab
UC Merced saw broad gains in the U.S. News and World Report 2026 Best Graduate Schools rankings with graduate programs rising in national standing, reflecting the campus’s growing academic and...
UC Merced graduate student Reo Maynard studies a carpenter ant from one of his many ant colonies.
On most days, Reo Maynard’s life swings between two ecosystems: the microscopic world inside an ant’s gut and the sprawling one that stretches from Fresno to the Sierra Nevada mountains...
Headshots of five postdoctoral scholars
UC Merced has received a $1 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to strengthen postdoctoral fellowships and expand research in the natural sciences. Awarded through...
Group of individuals attending event with grads student presenting on stage
Ten UC Merced graduate researchers are gearing up to deliver the most intense three minutes of their academic careers. Each spring, master’s and Ph.D. students across the campus’s...

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