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Research Excellence

July 17, 2025

Professor Sora Kim swam with a Nile crocodile for this year's Shark Week special, which focuses of sharks versus prehistoric reptiles. Photo courtesy of Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Shark Week starts Sunday and Professor Sora Kim will be featured again this year in a special airing at 9 p.m. Monday, titled “Jaws vs. Mega Croc,” and the filming allowed her to swim with a Nile crocodile. “I flew to Florida and learned about crocodiles – their evolution...
The Central Valley is a major contributor to a growing dust problem, in large part because of agriculture, researchers say.
An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and...
A new endowed chair will significantly enhance UC Merced’s work to advance research and innovation in the agricultural technology sector. Housed in the School of Engineering, the Christine...
A dust storm rises near Owens Lake. Photo Courtesy of UC San Diego
People don't think about dust much until it's time to clean the house, but a new report by UC researchers could raise awareness of the growing threat of dust and dust storms. Dust affects...
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...
Professor Anna Nierenberg
Cosmology Professor Anna Nierenberg has received a CAREER award for a project that will vastly improve the study of the nature of dark matter in the universe. She is the 42nd researcher from UC...
An avocet
Professor Emily Jane McTavish and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have mapped the evolution of every known bird species. They created a complete evolutionary tree of bird species by...
Flames, the beach and the ocean are depicted in a scene from the January 2025 Palisades fire.
Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable. "There...
Students Zeyi Moo, back left, and Yaying Wang, right, work with Professor Xuan Zhang, center, on her Alzheimer's-related research. Photo courtesy of Kate Marsh.
California’s Central Valley, famous for producing much of the food Americans eat, is also infamous for its inferior air quality and its high rates of poverty, housing insecurity and at-risk...
Sameen Yunus, left, and her faculty advisor, physics Professor David Strubbe
UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting...

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