Graduate Students

Sow and Grow Workshops Connect Smart Farm, Community

November 13, 2025

Photo depicts Ph.D. student Lynn Breithaupt holding up a native plant cutting.

On a chilly autumn morning at the UC Merced Experimental Smart Farm, about a dozen people enthusiastically dug/plunged their hands into soil in an exercise on how to propagate plants. For the less horticulturally inclined, propagating is the process of creating new plants from a single parent...

Professor Emily Moran, left, and graduate student Mengjun Shu examine seedlings in the research greenhouse.

Reforesting After Wildfires: Which Trees Are Most Likely to Thrive?

Wildfire seasons are intensifying because of climate change. That means reforestation efforts will increase, making it important for scientists and resource managers to understand how to make sure...

RadioBio hosts GradStory, an event that takes place during research week to highlight graduate students’ research and their journey to graduate school.

RadioBio Receives UC President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership

University of California President Janet Napolitano has selected UC Merced student organization RadioBio as one of two recipients for the 2020 President’s Award for Outstanding Student...

UC Merced’s Fundamental Tribology Lab has played a critical role in NASA's Mars 2020 mission scheduled to launch between July 30 and Aug. 15.

UC Merced Grad Student, Alumnus Play Significant Role in Mars 2020 Mission

NASA’s fifth exploratory rover is scheduled to head for Mars later this month to try and answer key questions about the potential for life on the red planet. Before the rover leaves...

More than 100 students participated remotely in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center's Summer Undergraduate Research Institute to develop critical research skills and prepare for graduate school.

Summer Research Program Continues to Serve Students Remotely

While the COVID-19 pandemic has kept most students and faculty mentors off campus, UC Merced’s commitment to providing research experiences to undergraduate students has not wavered. Over...

Three Awarded UC Pre-Professoriate Fellowships

UC Merced graduate students Anabel Castillo, Veronica Lerma and Sammy Villa are recipients of the University of California’s inaugural President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF)....

NASA Renews Campus Research Center for Another Two Years

The Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) —UC Merced’s NASA-funded center for nanomaterials-based research and education — has received a two-year, $1.8 ...

Study Reveals How Chemicals in Flame Retardants Interfere with Brain Development

Many of the items people use in their everyday lives, from baby clothes and Halloween costumes to furniture, are doused with chemical flame retardants designed to make the items safer. But a ...

What Will We Keep from Our Dive into Remote Technology?

It was, depending on who’s talking, a tumble into the deep end. A triage driven by exhaustive planning and exhausting, sleep-deprived days. A severing from the face-to-face culture that...

Grad Students, Alums Receive NSF Research Fellowships

Two UC Merced Ph.D. students, a recent undergraduate and an alumna have each been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). The fellowship provides multiyear...