NASA

Multinational Effort to Map South Africa’s Biodiversity from the Air Earns NASA Award

October 15, 2025

BioSCape, a multinational research project co-led by UC Merced, the University at Buffalo and the University of Cape Town, which monitored Earth’s biodiversity from the air, has received a Group Achievement Award as part of the 2024-25 NASA Honor Awards. A new documentary also showcases...

Stargazing and Lecture Offer Unique Perspectives on Stars and Exoplanets

The night sky is filled with countless mysteries and worlds yet to be explored but that someday might be visited by spacecraft. In a free event titled “Celestial Tales: Stars, Exoplanets and...

Members of the BioSCape team are pictured with NASA and South African aircraft.

Multinational Research Project Shows How Life on Earth can be Measured from Space

Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth. An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and...

UC Merced student Tejas Bhartia is pictured next to a NASA sign

Internship at NASA Yields Long-lasting Results for Student, Space Agency

A UC Merced undergraduate student's work at NASA helped ensure the space agency will have cost-effective and efficient communications. Tejas Bhartiya, who recently graduated from the...

The UC Merced astrophysicists with the Keck Observatory behind them

Astrophysics Researchers Present their Work at Hawaiian Observatory

A delegation of dignitaries from the University of California Office of the President, UC Merced and UCLA were recently treated to a presentation that included the astrophysicists from UC Merced at...

NASA mounted samples of solar films developed at UC Merced on a cube outside the International Space Station for 10 months.

First Test of Perovskite Films in Space Indicates More Resilience than Researchers Expected

Solar films developed by a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UC Merced while on an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) not only survived 10 months in space with minimal...

Researchers Take New Approach to Quantify Water Use

Like many other researchers, environmental engineering professors Erin Hestir and Joshua Viers are trying to quantify water use in California’s Central Valley. The difference is, they are...

Professors Sarah Loebman, left, and Anna Nierenberg, right

Space Telescope Time and Data Analysis Boosting Astrophysics Studies This Fall

Dark matter and the life cycles of star clusters will come into focus as UC Merced’s astrophysicists get resources from the two space telescopes soon to be exploring the universe. NASA...

Two engineering professors and a graduate student received a grant from NASA to study how wildfires alter changes in carbon and sediment along California’s coastline.

Engineering Professor Awarded NASA Grant to Study Impacts of Wildfires on California’s Coastline

California is known for its beautiful coastline, where the Pacific Ocean meets sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. While many scientists have studied the land or the ocean independently, less is known...

From Earth to Space and Back Again: Solar Samples Show Surprising Results

When physics graduate student William Delmas made samples of solar energy harvesting perovskite films two years ago, he had no idea that this summer, he’d be analyzing those same samples after...