Research Excellence

Professor Dives with Crocs, Displays Megalodon Expertise During Shark Week

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...

Address Stigma, Build Strength: UC Merced Co-leads Project to Lower LGBTQ2S+ Use of Nicotine

LGBTQ2S+ individuals use tobacco and nicotine products at significantly higher rates than straight and cisgender people, research shows. Reasons can include stress and other health problems brought...

A mugshot of Pengfei Su is depicted on a blue and gold striped background.

Machine Learning Research Earns CAREER award

Electrical engineering and computer science Professor Pengfei Su has received a CAREER award for his research on cross-layer performance tuning to enhance deep learning model efficiency. He...

Depicted are two electric vehicle charging stations at UC Merced.

Researchers Make the Case for Charging Cars During the Day

Many people with electric vehicles drive them to work during the day and then charge them overnight after returning home. But a simple reversal of that schedule could make it cheaper and easier to...

Wilson Among This Year’s AAAS Fellows, Recognized for Science and Outreach

Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’...

Pew Celebrates 40 Years of Support for Innovative Biomedical Research

Note: This article has been republished in part.The full article is available online . When David Mendoza-Cózatl, a 2006 Pew Latin American fellow in the biomedical sciences, got an email...

Photo depicts solar panels mounted on concrete supports over a canal.

Consortium Looks to Expand Solar-Over-Canal Projects Statewide

The first solar-over-canal project in California, which started with research at UC Merced, has begun producing electricity. Plans are now in the works to expand the technology to other areas. A...

Photo depicts electrical engineering and computer science Professor Ming-Hsuan Yang on a blue and gold background.

Computer Vision Researcher Honored for Work in AI

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the premier scientific society dedicated to advancing the understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior...

Photo is a graphic depiction of the thymus gland.

Thymus Research Could Unlock Immune System Improvements

A multimillion-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund research at UC Merced that could help cancer patients and others live longer, healthier lives. The $3.5 million, five-...

Huntington garden and two UC Merced professors

UC Merced Doubles Down on Huntington Distinguished Fellowships

The Huntington Library in San Marino is one of the world’s greatest sources for independent research in the humanities, with documents and artifacts that span 11 centuries. Scholars from more...

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