Life and Environmental Sciences

August 5, 2026

Mugshots of Mohammad Maharlooei and Lauren Hale are imposed over a photo of the Beginnings statue on the UC Merced campus.
Two UC Merced-affiliated scientists have joined University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Lauren Hale, a soil microbiologist in UC Merced's Department Life and Environmental Sciences, and Mohammad Maharlooei, an assistant professor of UC Cooperative Extension in...
UC Merced Professor Sora Kim stands on a dock next to actor and comedian Ken Jeong and singer and rapper Rei Ami.
Talk about meta: A pop culture phenomenon is using a pop culture phenomenon to undo the results of a pop culture phenomenon. And for the fourth consecutive year, paleoecology Professor...
A closeup of a pine tree with needles and cones
Everyone recognizes the sharp, clean fragrance of pine needles. But that's not just a pine forest or a Christmas tree we're smelling - it's the aroma of thousands of...
Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and 'Groundswell' co-Director Joshua Tickell
A leading expert in soil biogeochemistry and environmental engineering, UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, brings her research and perspective to a global conversation about the future of our...
A group of African elephants
Key Points: Elephants function as a keystone species, producing large amounts of nutrient-rich dung that sustain diverse dung beetle populations and support wider ecosystem health...
Headshots of five UC Merced professors who won early career award
Five UC Merced faculty members are among the first awardees of a UC-wide honor given for exemplary research in budding academic careers. The Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards,...
Elementary school students get a lesson in engineering and physics from undergraduates in the CalTeach program.
Students who arrive at UC Merced planning on specific careers often discover along the way that their interests — and strengths — are broader than they first imagined. A new initiative...
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...
The sign reads University of California, Merced
Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society 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...

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