Skip to content

NSF

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains

May 5, 2025

Photo depicts a firefighter and flames from the 2020 Apple fire in California.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment. A new study by UC Merced researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the United States that year. How? With schools...

Researchers Discover Mechanism Proteins Use To Find And Control Genes

Bioengineering Professor Victor Muñoz has answered a long-standing genetic mystery, and his research suggests that someday, bioengineers could devise ways to control gene activity — manually...

Researchers Aim to Cure Valley’s Salty Soil With $2.5M Grant From NSF

California’s Central Valley has some of the most productive agricultural land in the world, but the accumulation of salt from irrigation water is decreasing crop productivity and threatening...
Bioengineering professor Eva de Alba in her lab with her students and postdoctoral scholar. Students in back row: Pedro Diaz-Parga, Arturo Gonzalez, Suzanne Sandin, Kevin Ramirez and Christopher Randolph. Front Row: Meenakshi Sharma and Eva de Alba.

Bioengineering Faculty Member Studies Inflammation with NIH Grant

Everyone has inflammation in their body at some point as it is a vital part of the immune system. It’s what happens when white blood cells flow to a wound, whether that is a bruise or a broken...

Materials Science Researcher Honored with CAREER Award

Professor Yue ‘Jessica’ Wang, with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award, the 25th...
RadioBio art for episode on misfolded proteins cause human neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's.

RadioBio Breaks Down Science Through the Airwaves

Audio has become a top form of entertainment over the past several years, in large part due to the rising popularity of podcasts. UC Merced graduate students are seizing the opportunity to help...

Biodiversity Study Indicates Large and Small Organisms React Similarly to Environment

Bacteria and starfish have more in common than people might think. A new study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that both single-celled (...

Engineering Professor Working to Improve Strawberry Harvesting

Harvesting is said to be one of the most costly and labor-intensive operations in strawberry production. But a UC Merced engineering researcher is looking for ways to make it easier and cheaper....

Physicists Revealing Mysteries of Biological Fluids

A group of physics researchers from UC Merced have revealed that a fluid made from biological molecules found in human cells behaves much like ordinary fluids that are mixed externally, such as paint...
Lauren Schiebelhut is putting what she learned at UC Merced to take her research career to the next level.

Alumna Tackles Eco-Evolutionary Research on the California Coast

Lauren Schiebelhut credits the support and opportunities afforded to her at UC Merced with opening the door to her research career. Schiebelhut — a first-generation transfer student from...

Pages

Subscribe to NSF