Jarrod L. Brown Jr. is the first UC Merced graduate student to be awarded the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation fellowship, supporting his doctoral research in structural inequality in higher education.
The sociology Ph.D. candidate, who is one of 35 recipients selected...
Graduate Students

Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.
Walk across UC Merced’s campus on any weekday, and you might hear laughter spilling from...

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...

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...

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, 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...



